My Star
by iSnowX3
Summary: Ikuto switches places with a lookalike to get a break from being famous. While having some fun, he meets and falls for Amu, who apparently hates the famous Ikuto yet loves the one she knows. What happens when she finds out they're the same person? AMUTO.
1. Time to Begin

**... And Snowy is **_**backkkk**_**! x) Yep. I thought for sure I was done... or atleast taking a big long break, but nope. Here I am. after getting another hyped up inspiration..... **_**from a phone commercial. **_**Yep. This is what happens when Snow gets too much time on her fingers... and sits in front of the TV for six hours 8D This is making me realize that I have no life whatesover ._. Writing. No writing means more TV. And to think I was sitting in front of the TV with my laptop in my lap... *fails***

**Ah well, I think I'm totally going to give up on **_**The Strawberry or the Violin**_**. At least for now. Going to try something new for a bit :D**

_**Ages:**_

_**Yaya:17**_

_**Amu: 18**_

_**Ikuto: 21**_

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_We are all stars; we all have a dream._

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Okay!" Ikuto's manager said, clapping her hands together loudly. "Great job; I think we're done for today."

Ikuto didn't say anything as he placed his violin back in it's case. As much as he knew those words his manager said were compliments, they almost felt... _empty_ to him. As if they were only said just for the sake of being said; as if they were words that a manager had to say to the musician. They didn't mean anything.

The blue-haired violinist slapped himself mentally. There was no reason he should be thinking like that. He and his manager had been great friends since childhood, though nothing more than that. Ikuto still kept his eyes open for that special person, but that was extremely difficult. Because of his status as a famous violinist, most girls wouldn't even get past saying a single word or two to him. They would let out high pitched screams and then cling on to him as if their lives depended on it. It irritated Ikuto to a huge extent. He couldn't stand it when it happened to him almost on a daily basis.

He sighed, slinging his violin over his shoulder and exciting the recording studio. Outside, he saw a company limo waiting for him.

"Tsukiyomi-san," The driver said politely. "Would you like to go home now?"

Ikuto forced a smile on his face and shook his head.

"No thanks," He replied. "I think I'm going to take a walk on my own before going back."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and walked away, going in no direction in particular. Just whever his legs would take him.

_See... this is what I hate about being famous. You can never get a moment alone. You can never just talk to a person like normal. It's always "Oh my gosh! You're famous!" this and "I want to go out with someone rich, so go on a date with me!" That. I hate living like this._

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Hinamori Amu stuffed the last of the clothes into a large suitcase, pressing the top down and closing it. Beside her, Yaya was also stuffing another suitcase, only this one filled with sweet snacks.

"So Yaya," she asked for the fifth time. "Why again exactly are we doing this?"

The pink haired girl's companion looked up from her candy stash and blinked a couple times.

"Why am I packing candy?" She echoed. "Well, it's not like I'm going to go through this whole trip without sweets, am I? Yaya needs them to live."

Amu sighed. Her friend hadn't changed much since they met when Amu was only eleven and Yaya ten.

"No," She corrected her friend. "I meant why are we going on this trip? It seems like kind of a waste, no? We _live _in Japan, yet we're using our Summer to visit every part of it."

Yaya looked at Amu as if she were nuts.

"_Because_, Amu-chi," She whined. "It's _summer_! I want to have some fun! And besides, I haven't been to every part of Japan yet. I wanna go see all of it!"

Amu laughed and shook her head.

"It's going to be a bit strange," She sighed. "Since there's just the two of us going..."

Yaya's head snapped up from the suitcase she was packing to look at Amu again, her eyes filled with shock.

"Rima and Nadeshiko aren't coming anymore?!" She asked disbelievingly. "They lied to us then! Told us they wer coming."

"She was going to," Amu told her, sweeping some pink hair out of her face. "But it turns out that Nagihiko also wanted to do something with her for most of the summer, so she picked going with him. And as for Nadeshiko, she already told you, remember? She has to go to Europe to study the dancing styles there."

"Rima-tan and Nade-chan don't like us anymore... now it's Nagi this and dancing that.. what about us?" Yaya muttered poutingly under her breath, but almost instantly brightened again. "Oh well! Maybe if we find some people wandering around on the road during our trip we can ask if they want to join us!"

Amu didn't say anything, but laughed nervously and continued to help Yaya pack up some last minute stuff.

_Wouldn't that be funny... and a bit weird? We go on a huge road trip around Japan and in the end, we find a bunch of random people on the street and get them to join us and make friends with all of them. It sounds fun..._

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Ikuto pulled the hood of his jacket over his head, hiding his face from the public. Yet it was the only way he could walk around without anybody recognizing him. It was extremely annoying, really. The only way people can't see who you are if half of your vision is blocked out by a hood, too.

He turned the corner, slipping into a small store by a gas station. At this late time at night, the store was pretty empty: just him, another man browsing the shelves, and the store cashier. Ikuto shrugged. He was hungry, might as well buy something pointless that might be useful later on while he can; in a store with only two other people in it. Less chance of anybody finding out about him and who he really was.

However, he couldn't help but notice the other man in the store. He looked surprising identical to the famous violinist that was himself. Same midnight blue hair that was starting to get a little long. Same lean, tall figure. Even the same violet blue eyes, eyes that flashed when they were particulary annoyed or deep in concentration. Still, there were many differences between them. Yet they were really subtle, like the shape of their nose and how many minor details on their faces were. If you looked at them up close and placed the two of them next to each other, the difference between them was obvious. But if you could only look at them from a distance, you would think they were the exact same person. Possibly clones too.

_That's kind of scary... it's like he's my long lost twin or something. But... this might be giving me an idea..._

All of a sudden, Ikuto's so called look-a-like grabbed a few small items the shelf and shoved them into his pocket. Ikuto watched from a little way behind, eyes wide with surprise. Was this something that this guy did regularly? The man suddenly turned his head from side-to-side, checking to see if anyone saw him. Ikuto quickly ducked behind another shelf, careful to not be spotted. The other man shrugged, plunging his hands back into his pocket and then heading towards the exit.

Just as he was about to exit through the large sliding doors, the cashier working at the store suddenly ran towards him, grabbing his arm.

"Sir," He said sternly. "Let me see what's inside your pockets,"

The man glared at him.

"See what?" He demanded, attemting to pull away. Ikuto watched the whole thing, not moving at all throughout the whole thing. As much as he knew stealing from stores was wrong, he couldn't help but feel that this guy... that he needed to help this guy.

He quickly grabbed a few things off a shelf, not even caring to look at what they were. Then he quickly walked towards the scene, sliding his arm in between the two of them.

"Excuse me," He said, careful to not let anyone see his face. "But I'd like to buy these."

The cashier glared at both men.

"Yeah but this guy was shoplifting!" He said, pointing an accusing finger at the one that wasn't Ikuto. Ikuto frowned.

"He's with me," He lied. "And he wasn't stealing anything. So can I buy this stuff now or what?"

The cashier frowned, clearly not happy with this. But, he reulctantly walked both of them over to the cash regiester, letting Ikuto buy whatever it was he had in his hands.

After he was done, Ikuto walked out of the store, the other man following closely behind him. Once outside, Ikuto turned to him.

"So what are you trying to pull off, huh?" He asked. The other man's eyes widened. He suddenly pushed Ikuto away roughly, taking off into the night.

"Hey!" Ikuto called out. "Wait!"

But the man was already gone.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Amu sighed as she closed the last suitcase and threw it in with the rest of the pile of luggage.

"Well that was a day well spent," She commented tiredly. "After procrastinating for weeks, we finaly got everything we needed for the tripped packed in a day."

Yaya nodded in agreement, flopping onto the couch behind her in exhaustion.

"I know!" She whined. "Yaya doesn't like work."

Amu laughed.

"But it was your idea to go on this trip," She pointed out. "If anything, you should be doing more work."

Yaya frowned.

"But Amu-chi's older," She retorted. "So you should be doing more work."

Amu shook her head. She gave up.

"Anyways," Yaya said, tightly hugging one of the pillows on the couch. "Can you stay the night? Amu-chi takes too long to get ready in the morning and Yaya wants to be there to yell at her to make her hurry up."

Amu frowned.

"But Yaya!" She protested, her mind racing to think of some excuse to go home. "I have to... I have to finish packing up my stuff back home! We already finished everything we need from your house, but there's still things at my house."

Yaya frowned at her.

"You already packed everything," She said, sounding a bit confused. "We went to your house to pack last week, remember?"

Amu opened her mouth to say something else, but quickly closed it.

"Fine fine," She said in a resigned tone. "I'll call my parents to tell them I won't be coming home tonight."

Yaya smiled, proud of her triumph over the pink-haired girl.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Ikuto had been wandering around town aimlessly for almost an hour now; he told himself that he should start heading back. But as he was walking back, he spotted a small cafe. Despite the late hour at night it was, and the particularly small size of the cafe, the place was pretty packed. It was completely full inside, there were people even spilling out of the door and onto the street outside. The only way to get in was trying to slip through the tiniest gaps between people's bodies... which didn't sound very fun to Ikuto.

Still, he knew the place well. They food and drink they sold there were quite good actually... which would probably explain the huge crowd even during this time of day. He shrugged. Might as well kill another hour or two by getting something to eat here.

As he pushed his way through the rather large mass of people, he noticed a certain someone sitting at the table in the far corner. Someone with dark blue hair and eyes, just like he did.

The guy from the other store earlier.

Ikuto blinked. This time, the guy wasn't doing anything that was obviously bad. He was bent over a page of sheet music, vigorously scribbling music notes down onto a piece of sheet music. His facial expression formed a frown, glaring at the paper with intense concentration. Kind of how Ikuto would look if he were doing the same thing.

From where he was standing, amist the crowds, he still had a clear view of where the notes were positioned on the paper. Ikuto softly hummed it to himself, just curious to see how it would sound like. The tune didn't sound too bad, actually. In fact, it was actually pretty good. Ikuto would've never thought to write a song like that, even though he's the one that's the famous violinist.

All of this making the little idea in his brain from the store grow larger by the second. Now, instead of trying to make his way to the cashier in the cafe to order something to eat, he tried to approach the man from earlier, hoping to be able to ask him a couple of questions.

As he walked in that direction, a girl bumped against his shoulder, knocking his hood off. Ikuto panicked.

"Sorry," He muttered quickly, hoping to get away from her before she realized who he was.

No such luck, though.

As soon as the girl recovered herself, she glanced at Ikuto's face and let out a high pitched squealed. Unfortunately, it was loud enough to get everyone else's attention. They all turned to stare as the whole cafe fell silent.

"Oh my god!" She screamed. "It's Tsukiyomi Ikuto!"

"Seriously!?" Someone else exclaimed.

"Crap..." Ikuto muttered under hs breath as everyone started to close in around him.

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**Well I think I'll end it here. I was planning on ending it later, but here seems like good enough.**

**Review please :D Or else I might loose motivation again...**


	2. Winding Roads

***twitch* The playlist I usually listen to while writing isn't working today DD: And neither is Youtube. Plus I dislike silences... I need my music to concentrate ._. Prepare yourselves for a horrible chapter now. Not to mention I is sad D: I just learned about DBSK's SME lawsuit... and I hope the best for them D: I love Xiah, and I can't stand it if they decide to really break up in the end.**

**23 reviews... I'm actually happy with that x)**

**... Now to reply to them all. Crap.**

**colourfulgurl: **Yepp. I pity Ikuto ._. And I'm the one writing the story... I really do have a screwed up mind, no?

**Natsuya801923: **Yes I is back :D I'm even worse. I play on my iTouch _while _waiting for my laptop to load the page or boot up or something :) Then when the computer's done I switch back to that. You're number two... which is the top five xD Grats. And I don't know who the manager is ._. They shall be Mr. Manager! :DD Just like how Ikuto used to call his stepdad Mr. Director. Well, she'll only be going to the dentist if she can manage to finish all that candy... which I'm not exactly doubting right now. ... Wow. You guessed it already? o_o Dang... And I don't know how that is either :D He can't be Aruto, since I have a plan for that later on... but I don't know who he is ._. He'll be Mr. Ikuto's Twin then.

**Snowrosex3: **I told you already, I shall fail at it D: You're the one with awesome writing skills... I'll just make it all horrible looking ._. *fails*

**bendercat: **I blame my lack of imagination D: *does Spongebob imagination rainbow thing*

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **It's not Aruto... got a plan for that later :D He is Ikuto #2 for now... considering I haven't thought of his name yet...

**dittoeevee88: **Eh... good luck on hoping for that. I think I might just delete that whole fail. And I know D: I was trying to fix that except I couldn't think of anything to say before each cut... Oh well. I'm basing this off of a ten minute phone commercial I watched... and that's how that person's hood came off, so I guess it has to work for Ikuto too then?

**mikohoshina: **Thank you :)

**hyrule-rikku55555: **Well I haven't exactly lost motivation yet, no? And that made perfect sense :D

**candyland21: **.... D: Please don't die.

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: **.... You just guessed it D: My stories are way to predictable...

**Pinkiiee-Chan: **But it's true :O I don't have a life. Ever since I broke up with my boyfriend (back in the beginning of July), I've rarely kept in contact with anyone ._. Stupid trips to Asia that I've never been on... And I hate the sun. I was out a lot on that vacation I went on last week, and I had this really weird sunburn on my cheeks afterwards. It made it look like I was constantly blushing... not very good. It was almost to the point to the color Amu's cheeks would turn when Ikuto teased her. That bad. Bleh. I'm not going out unless someone personally comes over and drags me outside. But I was out all day Friday anyways. Had to take my cousin to the amusement park... and almost threw up after this one ride D: I disliked it. You stand up in this wheel thingy, they spin you really fast, then they _flip you horizontal _and then continue spinning you even faster... not fun. The pressure from gravity kept pushing against your stomach, so yeah. I almost barfed. Why is everyone starting school already? I don't start until September 2nd ._. But it gives me more time to mentally prepare my mind for my parents mass yelling about how I need to get off the computer and study for something during the school year. D: Why does it matter anyways? I mean, if you do all your homework and get A's on your tests, it shouldn't matter what you do in all your spare time, right?

Hakumei xo: ... Everyone thinks it's either Aruto or Yoru don't they ._. But to be honest, I don't know. For now I'm just calling him Mr. Ikuto's Twin in my brain. I doubt he'll even get a real name or something.

**Neji0932: **Yes I is back. I only picked Yaya because.. her personality is interesting :) And I need someone like that for what's going to happen later in the story...

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **This chapter... I think. Well that's where I plan to stop, God knows where I actually do stop.

**MysteryPearl: **I think I will x3

**HlorkexD: **Yup :O

**Miki-chann: **Joyce-sama? I thought you said I was Joyce-sempai... Oh well :D I like both. Thanks for reviewing~

**missHeLen: **Thank you!

**yumi-echizen: **Thank you :)

**Amuto-fan-Neko-San: **It'll be very interesting :D

**Tsuki's Angel: **Thank you~

**MangaFanXD: **Thank you :D

**Amuto20174: **... I love you too xD

**MsxMisunderstood: **But it's not original o_o Well.. it's half original. I got the idea from watching a phone commercial, remember?

**mabbi: **Thank you!

**... And thanks to all those people who decided to add me on alerts yet don't review ._.**

**Same ages as last time.**

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"Is that really Tsukiyomi Ikuto?"

"Ikuto, Hi Ikuto!"

"Tsukiyomi-san!!! I'm your biggest fan!"

"Ikuto, I love you! I love you and your music more than anything in the world!"

"Ikuto, you don't know me, but we're going to be married one day!"

Ikuto glared as another girl courageously ran up to him, staring at his face carefully to check if it was really him. After a couple of seconds, she let out a scream.

"IT IS!" She exclaimed. Ikuto risked a glance back behind him, at the his idenitcal.

The man was already gone.

Ikuto wasted no time in pushing through the crowd, desperate to get some time without a bunch of people bothering him again. Unfortunately, as soon as he made his way out of the cafe, many other people had already heard that he was here... and they were all waiting outside for him.

Now he was surrounded.

All of a sudden, the loud noise of an engine was heard. Ikuto turned to the direction the sound was coming from, and saw his identical, speeding towards him with a motorcycle. He stopped right in front of Ikuto.

"Get on," He said. "Hurry!"

Ikuto hesitated. He hadn't even said ten words to the guy, yet he was expected to trust him?

During his moment of thinking to himself, a girl ran up to him.

"Ikuto-san?" She asked, jumping up in down in excitement. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

Ikuto's eyes widened in surprised horror.

_I bet that going with that guy will be better than dealing with this for the next six hours or so._

The identical smirked, noticing that Ikuto decided to come with him. He picked up the spare helmet and tossed it to him. Ikuto caught it and jumped onto the back of the motorcycle.

However, as they were riding it, the crowd still continued chasing them.

"Ikuto-kun! Wait for me!"

"Don't go yet, we still have to go on a date and kiss first!"

"Ikuto! Do you like my shirt?"

_.... What type of question is that?_

Ikuto looked over his shoulder, groaning at the amount of people still following them. After traveling about a dozen blocks, turning many sharp corners, and even through a highway, the last of the people finally gave up and stopped following them.

His identical continued, though, until they were on top of an empty bridge. He then jumped off, leaning against a street light post.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto, huh?" He snickered. "Well, Tsukiyomi-san, we're even now, aren't we?"

Ikuto blinked and nodded.

"Yeah," He agreed. "I save you from getting arrested and you save me from getting crushed by a bunch of screaming girls."

The other blue-haired man nodded in agreement.

"Is being famous always like that?" He wondered out loud, more to himself than to Ikuto. "Always getting followed by fans, always loved by everyone..."

He laughed and smirked at Ikuto.

"I bet you have no problem finding a girlfiend, do you?" He joked. Ikuto shrugged, grinning.

"Actually, yes, I do," He said. "I'm not going to be with a person who can't stop screaming the moment they even hear my name. I have to admit it's pretty awesome being the center of attention at first, but then too much of it really annoys the crap out of you."

"But still," The identical pointed out. "I must be fun being famous."

Ikuto thought for a moment. He could show this guy, but his schedule was packed for the next couple of months or so. The next free moment he has was around Christmas... and considering it's still the beginning of summer, that's a long time from now.

... Bingo.

"What's your name?" Ikuto asked suddenly.

"Yoru..." The man said slowly, confusion flitting across his face. "Why...?"

"And you can play the violin?" Ikuto asked. Yoru nodded.

Ikuto smirked.

"How would you like to find out what being famous is really like?" He asked, his tone serious.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Wow..." Yoru said in awe. "You're house is... big."

Ikuto grinned and nodded.

"Yes it is," He agreed. "Such a shame how I only use a couple of the rooms. Don't need the rest of them."

Yoru blinked.

"Then why'd you buy such a big house?" He asked. Ikuto shrugged and continued walking, ignoring him. Yoru followed him into one of the rooms at the end of the hall. It was a rather large closet, almost the size of an average bedroom, filled with many outfits that Yoru recognized at the clothing as the ones Ikuto wore during concerts and performances.

Ikuto disappeared into the depths of the closet, emerging after a few minutes with a few pieces of clothing. They were quite simple; just a black jacket and black pants.

"Put this on," He instructed, handing them to Yoru. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

With that, Ikuto turned around and walked out of the closet. Once he was gone, Yoru stared at the clothes in his hand.

_What is that guy planning?_

Five minutes later, Ikuto walked back into the closet to find Yoru in the black clothing. He smirked, raising a hand to mess with Yoru's hair so that it covered his eyes and a majority of his face. Aftwards, he took a step back, admiring his work. The two of them were completely identical, now that you can't see some of the minor differences in their faces.

"There." Ikuto said. "And as for your question earlier, I get such a big house so that I can use it for emergencies like this."

Yoru raised an eyebrow.

"Emergency?" He repeated. "What emergency?"

Ikuto smirked, and walked out of the closet, back into the hallway. He pointed a finger out of a large window, which showed _another _house behind the house the two of them were standing in right now.

"That house came with this house," He explained, pulling out a set of keys and tossing them to Yoru. "And for you, it's a gift."

Yoru's eyes widened.

"Why... me.. gift?" He asked. Ikuto grinned,

"I'm giving it to you in exchange for doing me a favor," He said. Yoru blinked again.

"Depends... what's the favor?" He inquired. Ikuto's grin grew wider.

"You're me now, okay?"

Yoru's eyes widened.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"It's perfect," Ikuto explained. "I'm famous, yet I want to take a break from being famous. You're... not famous. And you want to know what it's like to be famous. So you can be me.... and I'll go off to do whatever it is I've always wanted to do. Once I figure out what that is. Besides, we look almost the exact same. No one's going to realize any differences."

Yoru hesitated for a moment, then grinned.

"So when do I start?" He asked.

**~ Three Weeks Later ~**

Ikuto leaned against the entranceway to the concert hall, smiling in satisfaction as he pulled his hood down even lower. He had to admit the past couple of weeks have been a lot of work, both for him and Yoru. The two of them had spent countless hours preparing for this; to make sure Yoru could answer all the questions anyone would normally ask Ikuto, to make sure that Yoru could learn all of Ikuto's songs quickly in time for the performance. And so much more. Down to the littlest details, like how Ikuto walked to how he uncaringly said everything.

They both agreed that the hardest part of this was convincing Ikuto's manager to go along with their plan. At first, he was totally against it, saying that Ikuto couldn't afford to take a break right now, and that Yoru might slip and the whole idea would just fall apart and go downhill from there. Just convining his manager alone took Ikuto hours of begging... and even a little blackmail was used to do the trick.

However in the end, it was all worth it. There was a performance, going on now, and no one seemed to notice that it wasn't that Ikuto on the stage. In fact, all the people inside didn't realize that the real Ikuto was just standing a couple feet behind them, watching the whole thing with a wide smirk on his face. It was amazing, really. In the back of his head, Ikuto wondered if he could put just any random person up there on the stage and say it was Ikuto. Would they still believe that it was him?

Probably. As long as the sign outside said that it was "Tsukiyomi Ikuto" performing.

As the song drifted to an end, the crowd exploded into cheers... still oblivious to the fact that the real Ikuto was standing right behind them. Yoru however, from his spot on the stage, noticed Ikuto standing there and gave him a quick grin. Ikuto returned the grin before turning around and leaving the concert hall.

Once out, he let out a huge sigh of relief. The concert had went flawlessly. There were no mistakes in the song itself, plus everyone unconditionally believed that that was actually Tsukiyomi Ikuto up there performing on the stage. Ikuto gave himself a mental pat on the back.

_I'm so smart.. coming up with a foolproof plan like this._

He sat on a bench, watching as everyone slowly walked out after the performance. Once everyone was gone, Yoru exited, taking a seat next to Ikuto. Ikuto turned to smirk at him.

"You did good," He said approvingly, standing up. "You like it?"

Yoru grinned and nodded.

"So I'll just keep pretending to be you until I don't want to anymore, then just give you a call and you'll come back?" He asked. Ikuto nodded.

"Well then," Yoru joked. "Be prepared to not come back for a _long _time. I could get used to this."

Ikuto laughed.

"Don't let it get to your head," He advised. "And don't get a girlfriend. At least not as me. I don't want to have to come back and deal with some screaming fangirl for a girlfriend."

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Amu-chi," Yaya whined. "Do you have any idea where we're going? I think we're lost!"

Amu glared out the windshield, her fingers clenching the wheel tightly as she drove down the winding road. It was almost as if every twist and turn in the road only added to Amu's horrible mood.

"Yaya..." She hissed, teeth clenched. "How can we be lost if we've been on the same road for the past hour? There aren't any roads for us to turn onto to get lost on!"

Yaya frowned.

"Why is Amu-chi in such a bad mood?" She pouted. "She's making Yaya very scared."

Amu stomped on the brakes.

"_Why am I in a bad mood?_" She demanded. "Why am _I _in a bad mood? Well, how would you feel if you had some kid sitting next to you while you've been driving for ten hours straight, talking nonstop about things that don't even make any sense?!"

Yaya flinched. Amu groaned, pushing the door open and jumped out. She walked around to the passenger side of the car, taking a seat on the grassy field next to the road. The pink-haired girl curled up into a ball and buried her face into her knees.

Yaya wasted no time in following Amu. Unfortunately, Amu sat with her back facing the car, so her frustated face wasn't seen by Yaya.

"Yaya's sorry... " The brown haired girl whispered. "Amu-chi.. Yaya's very sorry."

Amu sighed, flopping backwards to lay on the grass.

"No Yaya," She said quietly. "I'm sorry. Yaya will always be Yaya. And the Yaya I know and love never stops talking. It's my fault for getting so mad."

Yaya didn't say anything for a moment.

"If you want..." She suggested a few minutes later. "Yaya can drive for the rest of the day."

Amu smiled and shook her head.

"No I can drive," She said. "Just let me lie here for a little bit before driving again."

Yaya shrugged.

"Well if Amu-chi needs me," She said. "Yaya will be waiting in the car."

Amu kept her eyes shut and heard the car door shut audibly as Yaya stepped in. She let out another sigh, stretching out her arms and legs as she felt all the tension inside her release. Just laying here on the grass and relaxing like this... it felt reall ygood to Amu.

Suddenly, she heard a pair of footsteps approaching her. She ignored them, assuming that it was Yaya just coming out again to do something of really no importance to Amu. The footsteps stopped in front of Amu, right next to her head.

"Miss?" A deep voice, much deeper than Yaya's ask. "Are you okay... I mean, you're just lying there on the ground..."

Amu's eyes flew open.

_That. Was. Not. Yaya. It can't be._

When she opened her eyes, she saw a man bent over her, his dark violet blue eyes filled with anxiety. His face was dangerously close to Amu's; close enough so that his midnight blue hair tickeled Amu's cheeks and cauased them to turn a light pink.

"I'm okay!" Amu gasped, sitting up suddenly. The move was really unexpected; Ikuto didn't move away fast enough.

So as soon as Amu sat up, her lips collided with his.

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**Review. Now. Please? Onegai? Mm Goi? Juseyo? :D Language fail.**


	3. Stay With Us

***sigh* School starts up again tomorrow ._. I really don't want to go back, even though I get to see everybody again. It's almost like walking into a large group of buildings, begging for homework and for your free time to be chewed up again.**

**... not to mention talking to my ex again after almost two months of lack of communication ._. This is what happens when one of you gets your laptop confiscated and the other one gets shipped off the countless trips.**

**Reply time x)**

**Snowrosex3: **._. I swear, write an Amuto and you'll get all the reviews in the world. And my fail still stands. Well yours was a CPR kiss :D Mine was a sit up kiss.

**iipinkiex3: **Well... that's not exactly how it's going to go.

**dittoeevee88888: **Random things make the chapter look longer :)

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **It _was _going to be Aruto... until I needed that name for something else.

**xhappily-randomx: **Thank you :)

**Wildeh: **Thank you :D

**Ren'aiXhakume: **... Are you serious? D: I am so sorry. I totally didn't know about your idea... *sad*

**Amuto20174: **It is, isn't it?

**RandomlyBoredWolfy: **Like I said, I've got no life :) So I have all the time in the world to write.

**candyland21: **... lol x)

**Neji0932: **Yes they did.

**Snowiisan: **Thank you~

**animeluver714: **Amu's so smart, no? xD

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: **So many "oh my god"s :D

**laylagoddessofeverything: **I will.. just wait.

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **Thank you :D

**Pinkiie-Chan: **But I _am _a kid x) I have every right to act like one. Yepp. My awesome sunburn. Hopefully it'll go away before school starts. It wasn't really that bad for me ._. The breakup. Yeah... it was a bit awkward, but now we're fine :D Friends again. And nope, I've never been to Asia. And sadly, everyone else does, so I'm the only one stuck at home with nothing to do.

**MysteryPearl: **It is, isn't it?

**amutofan: **Thanks!

**Aangsfan: **Thanks~

**Miki-chann: **Doesn't matter... though Joyce-sempai sounds a little more catchy x) your choice.

**Soccerluver04: **Ah, you're the one I talked to on AIM the other day, no? I have another idea for Aruto, so he can't be Ikuto's identical. I guess you can say.. he _is _Ikuto? xDD

**colourfulgurl: **... You never know. You never know :)

**ShellyCullen: **It's not an amazing story :) It's a crap story.

**miruku-chii: **Okay okay :O

**mabbi: **Well it wasn't exactly a regular phone commercial... it was Korean CF, which is basically just an extremely long Korean phone commercial. On average they're around 9 - 1O minutes long. If you wanna watch the one I saw, go onto YouTube and search up "Samsung AnyStar CF" and watch the one that's around 9:15 minutes long... and if you don't speak Korean then I suggest you get one with English subtitles too :) I can speak enough Korean to understand it... yet I still fail horrible on the average basis ._. But I think that you won't figure out too much of the plot line from watching it now... I've made up way too much new stuff so it's barely relatable to the commercial.

**bendercat: ***jumps up and down with you*

**Angel Lilth: **Well I think I might be dead if I saw Ikuto on a motorcycle... *daydreams about it* So hottt :O

**... Wow. My replies are so short this time ._. Maybe I'm not good at pretending to be happy when in truth, I'm extremely pissed off.**

**And I really want to thank all of you guys who even bother to review anymore. I was reading over my reviw replies (to check for spelling / grammar errors...etc.), when I noticed that the replies I give out make it sound like I totally don't care about you guys. But, I do. I love all of you to death for wasting thirty seconds of your life to type up something that means so much to me x)**

**Same ages as last time... again xD**

**

* * *

**

For a few long moments, neither of them moved. Amu's eyes were wide, and she could feel her cheeks begin to heat up to their embarassing bright red guy, someone that she didn't even know, was.. _kissing _her. And yet, she couldn't find the will or the control over her body to move away. It was almost as if she was stuck there; frozen in that position for all of eternity.

Ikuto on the other hand, was also beyond shocked. To think it all started out with him finding some girl laying there on the ground. And all he thought of at the time was that he could try to be a good person and check if she was okay. And now they were... kissing. What a strange turn of events.

And yet, it felt... good. To both of them.

Amu blinked a couple times, and Ikuto smirked. He leaned a bit more forward and softly nibbled on Amu's lower lip... causing the pink-haired girl to scream loudly and jump up.

"W-What was that for, you pervert?!" She stammered, cheeks bright red. "I don't even know you! You're just some stranger who _kissed _me!"  
Ikuto tilted his head to one side in confusion. She... didn't know who he was? But _everyone _knew he was... Tsukiyomi Ikuto for God's sake!

All of a sudden, Yaya hopped out of the van and ran towards Amu. She had her phone flipped open and clenched tightly in her hand as she ran.

"Amu-chi!" She exclaimed. "Look! Rima-tan sent me this video of Tsukiyomi Ikuto! Apparently he's doing some sort concert tour right now, and she recorded it on her phone! Isn't that amazinggg?!"

Amu sighed, glaring at the phone.

"Yaya..." She asked in an exasperated tone. "How many times do I have to tell you? I hate that Tsukiyomi Ikuto guy and his violin. I mean, he think's he's so great and everything when he's just a guy with a violin and a gigantic ego. I hate how he thinks he's all special and everything because all these girls are going after him and love him and his looks to death. Big deal. To be honest, I don't even like his music."

Ikuto blinked, taken aback by what Amu just said. Did that girl realize that the violinist she was talking about was standing right in front of her?

Guess not.

"Well," He said, taking a step forward in his defense. "I think that he's a great person. Besides, it's not nice to talk about people like that."

Amu raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" She snorted. "You would 're so obsessed with him, you even look just like him. What'd you do, get plastic surgery to be his identical twin or something?"

Ikuto stiffened as Yaya's eyes widened. The brown-haired girl raised up her phone so that she could compare the man on the screen to the one in front of her and Amu.

"Come to think of it..." She said. "You guys really _do _look alike..."

She pointed a finger at him.

"Are you Tsukiyomi Ikuto!?" She squealed. Ikuto's face paled. First two people he meet can already guess who he is?

"N-No..." He said quickly. "I'm not Ikuto... I just look like him."

He turned to glare at Amu.

"And it's just a coincidence," He snapped. "And, I'm... um... Ho..Hoshina... Aruto! Yeah, Hoshina Aruto!"

_Okay... Hoshina Aruto... now all I've got to do is remember to react whenever someone calls me that._

Amu blinked, cheeks still quite a bit red, though not as bad as before.

"Took you long enough to say your name," She muttered. "Anyways, I'm Hinamori Amu."

"Yuiki Yaya!" The girl with brown pigtails said, jumping up from behind Amu. "Nice to meet 'cha!"

Ikuto was still for a moment, then his face broke into a smirk as he stared at Amu. It was a nice change, meeting a decent-looking girl that hated him instead of loving him. But still... no one liked it when someone hated them.

Guess Ikuto was just going to have to fix that, huh?

Yaya suddenly tugged on the sleeve of Amu's shirt.

"Amu-chi..." She whispered. "Remember what we said before the trip?"

Amu frowned. Why did Yaya have to remember this now?  
**~ Flashback! x) ~**

... what about us?" Yaya muttered poutingly under her breath, but almost instantly brightened again. "Oh well! Maybe if we find some people wandering around on the road during our trip we can ask if they want to join us!"

Amu didn't say anything, but laughed nervously and continued to help Yaya pack up some last minute stuff.

_Wouldn't that be funny... and a bit weird? We go on a huge road trip around Japan and in the end, we find a bunch of random people on the street and get them to join us and make friends with all of them. It sounds fun..._

**~ Back to normal time again 8D ~**

Yaya grinned.

"So why don't we ask _him_?" She asked, pointing at Ikuto. Ikuto stood there, eyebrows raised and looking a bit confused.

"Ask me what?" He repeated. Yaya nugded Amu's arm.

"Amu-chi, ask him!" She pratically shouted. Amu glared at Yaya.

"Yaya..." She hissed. "Why woud I ask _him _of all people to come with us? He's some disgusting pervert. I don't want to be stick with him for who knows how long!"

Ikuto, who heard this whole thing, smirked at Amu.

"So when did I become a 'disgusting pervert'?" He asked. Amu shot him a deathly glare.

"You kissed me!" She shrieked. "And who knows what else you might've done if I hadn't jumped up?!"

Ikuto's smirk grew wider.

"Come on, _Amu_," He whispered seductively. "You know you enjoyed that kiss. Don't deny it."

Amu's face was beyond red now.  
"SEE WHAT I MEAN?!" She screamed. "There's no way I'm going to spend the rest of this trip with that pervert!"

Yaya frowned.

"Why not?" She pouted. "It's so boring with just Yaya and Amu-chi driving around!"

Amu frowned.

"So I'm boring now... and this guy isn't?" She asked flatly, pointing her thumb in Ikuto's direction. Yaya grinned and nodded.

"Aruto-san make you scream and everything," She pointed out. "It was interesting."

Amu's cheeks flushed again.

_Why are they turning so red again? This hasn't happened ever... around any guy before... But then again, I've never really accidentally kissed a guy like that either..._

She rapidly shook her head, clearing all her thoughts of anything related to that.

"Fine," She muttered in a resigned tone. "I guess he can stay with us."

Ikuto smirked.

"Nice to know, Amu-_chan_," He said. Amu's face reached a new level of redness as she glared at him.

"What's your problem?" She demanded. "I've known you for what - five minutes?! And you're already calling me Amu-chan!"

Ikuto's smirk grew wider as he leaned in closer. Close enough so that Amu could feel his warm breath on her face. It felt nice to her... but it wasn't any help to her burning cheeks.

"Would you like me to call you something else then?" The blue-haired man asked. "Amu-tan? Amu-chi? Amu...-koi?"

Amu gasped.

"Don't you dare call me the last one!" She shouted. Ikuto grinned and opened his mouth to say something else but was interupted by Yaya pulling on both of their arms.

"Okay okay," She whined, sounding a bit too immature. "Enough of the flirting! Yaya doesn't like all this lovedy-dovedy stuff!"

Amu and Ikuto both stared at her, eyes widened to their limits.

_FLIRTING?!?!?!?!??! What is she thinking?! I am __**not **__flirting with this person... I just met them for God's sake!_

Ikuto turned to study Amu's slim figure more carefully.

_But then again... she is kind of cute, especially when she's blushing and her cheeks are all red like that. Reminds me of those animes I used to watch as a kid, those ones with adorable, strangely hair-colored girls... Ikuto! What are you thinking? She hates you, remember? ... Well she hates part of you. She just doesn't know that you that she hates is actually you... sounds so confusing._

Amu, on the contrary, refused to even look in Ikuto's direction.

_That perverted weirdo... kissing me and then making fun of me like that... who does he think he is?_

Yaya smiled at both of them.

"So is Aruto going to come along with us or not? She demanded. Ikuto flinched at the sound of his jumped at the sound of his newfound name, a bit startled.

_Why couldn't I thought of something that sounded a lot closer to Ikuto... It'll be ages before I remember that that's what those two think my name is... wouldnt it be weird if they kept calling me Aruto and I never reacted... they would think I'm mental or something..._

He shrugged.

"I don't see why not," Ikuto said indifferently. "Not like I've got anything better to do anyways."

"Yay!" Yaya cheered. "Aruto's going to stay with us! See Amu-chi? We really are making new friends on this trip!"

Amu, however, looked the complete opposite of Yaya's enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, she looked beyond horrified.

"B-But why _him_?!" She stammered. "I mean.. couldn't you find someone a little less... perverted?"

Ikuto shook his head disapprovingly.

"Now now, Amu-_chan_," He scolded. "If Yaya wants me to come along, then we should let her have her way."

Amu opened her mouth to protest, and probably to complain about Ikuto some more, but was interupted by Yaya. The brown-haired girl threw her into the backseats of the car, doing the same with Ikuto shortly afterwards.

"Yaya doesn't care about what you guys are fighting over," She announced loudly. "But she"ll let you two lovebirds fight it over yourselves. It's Yaya's turn to drive, remember?"

Amu's jaw dropped.

"W-what are you talking about?! You know what, you don't have to drive! I'll do it.. as long as this guy doesn't sit in the front with me!"

But Yaya didn't hear, as she already slammed the door on them. She pouted to herself as she skipped to the driver's seat.

_Amu has someone to talk to now other than herself and Yaya... maybe Yaya will find another person and start talking to them then!_

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Amu glared out her window, arms crossed tightly over her chest and her back facing Ikuto. Ikuto was staring at Amu, watching every single one of her movments with an amused smirk on his face.

But underneath that smirk, he was thinking to himself. Thinking about his actions a few minutes ago. How did he get to be so comfortable with teasing Amu and everything after only knowing her for less than half an hour... Well they kissed to, but that shouldn't count since it was an accident.

Whatever it was, Ikuto didn't want to be ignored by her. Yet he didn't want to stop making fun of her like he was doing earlier eitiher.

He slid on the seat so that he was sitting right behind Amu, and leaned down to do something... probably bother her, when the car screeched to a sudden stop. Amu yelped in surprise as both she and Ikuto fell backwards.

Fell so that her back landed on Ikuto's chest. Ikuto's eyes widened.

_She's so... warm.. warm and soft._

Amu let out a small and quiet gasp. Her back could practically feel Ikuto's toned body under hers, and it was making her cheeks heat up very quickly again. Ikuto noticed this and smirked.

"Eh.. so you like this position, don't you?" He joked. Amu glared at him.

"Of course not, you pervert," She muttered as she tried to sit up. Ikuto's face fell. He wouldn't have really minded if she stayed there like for just a little bit longer... or a lot longer for that matter. But he didn't make any move to stop her as she leaned forward and stuck her head in the front of the car.

"Yaya," She asked. "Why'd we stop?"

Yaya turned to her, eyes excited.

"Because today's Yaya's lucky day!" She cheered. "Yaya found another person on the road!"

Amu rolled down the window and stuck her head outside to see who it was. Standing on the corner of the road was another man, his blonde hair blowing softly with the wind.

"He is cute..." She whispered. Ikuto frowned. He didn't get nearly the same reaction from the pink-haired girl as this guy did. Besides, he had to admit, he looked better than that guy on the road did. If anything he should've gotten a comment like that from Amu.

Yaya jumped out of the car, walking towards the man.

"So who are you?" She asked, pointing a finger at him. The person blinked.

"Hotori Tadase..." He answered.

* * *

**Review please! Updates after this might be a bit... slower since I've got school and everything now :\**


	4. I'm Sorry

**First day of school was... how should I say this? It was fine, yet there was a certain person or two that I honestly think need a slap in the face. At the very least.**

**Sorry this chapter took a while, fanfiction was freaking glitched up for the last day or so, and I've already had so much homework...**

**Pre-ordered WonderGirl's English album :) Just felt like sharing that with you guys.**

**Review Reply time!**

**MysterPearl: **Tadase is not gay! But I like the word gay-cookie... I laughed at that.

**Snowrosex3: **... *refers back to chapter 1* "...Nagihiko also wanted to do something with her for most of the summer, so she picked going with him. And as for Nadeshiko, she already told you, remember? She has to go to Europe...." :) There's your answer. D: Fine. Be that way then.

**Miki-chann: **Ehehe. I'm Joyce-sempai now xD Yeah.. replying to some of these is a bit tiring, but it's fun when you keep the mindset that this is your way of thanking all the people that bother to review. And of course, Ikuto'll always look better than Tadase :)

**bedercat: **Welcome to my life.

**Snowiisan: **Thank you!

**amuto fan: **Yes. It's a Tadase.

**Amuto20174: **Yes there will be.

**Angel lilith: **Yes it is, isn't it?

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **Ikuto = Aruto :D I'm not exactly a fan of Yaya x Tadase, but I"m not against it either, so it should work... I think.

**Tsuki Amu: **Eh... actually this whole story is based off the MV... at least the long version. I love that video. Lee Hyori's so hot :)

**Amuto luver: **Thank you!

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: **Don't explode D:

**animeluver714: **Yes she is.

**Pinkiie-Chan: **Yep. I dislike school.

**insulife: **Well first one of my friends told me about it, and I disregarded it as something useless since at the time I totally wasn't into anime. Then a different friend got me into watching Vampire Knight, and I guess you could say that was the start of my anime love since VK was my first anime. Ever. And then later on another friend of mine told me about Shugo Chara!, and then I started watching it out of pure curiosity.. and I loved it :)

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **Yes yes. Snowy is backkk xD

**Kawaiimiyu-chan: **Thank you~

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **.. Because if that happened the story woul be too perfect?

**Kammie-chan: **Thank you :)

**Soccerluver04: **Your review isn't lame :O I would've done much much worse if I was on my iTouch. I would've probably just put in something totally stupid like "Update soon!" or something.

**Dittoeevee88: **Well some people put in something really short like "Nice." That's it. The whole review. I don't think there's an Easter.. because Hoshina is just another surname here ._.

**Hinazuki Miu: **Why not? :D Well the car'll only explode if too many people get in. Right now it's only at two.

**Neji0932: **... Oh god. Am I really that predictable?

**Foxgrl18: **Thank you

**Foxgrl18: **I will ^^

* * *

Amu stared at Tadase.

_Hotori Tadase... what a cute name._

Ikuto glared at him.

_Hotori Tadase... what an ugly name._

Yaya smiled at him.

"So Tadase," She asked. "What are you doing today?"

Tadase shrugged.

"Nothing... I guess," He replied boredly. Amu's eyes lit up.

"Really?!" She exclaimed, her tone quickly growning more and more enthusiastic by the second. "Then do you think you can come with us? It's so lonely here with just Yaya and that pervert."

Yaya shot the pinkette a scathing glance, while Ikuto just rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat.

_You know what? Fine. If she wants to think of me as a pervert, then so be it. I'll just have to live up to her standards though._

Ikuto smirked to himself. That was going to be fun.

While he was deep in his own thoughts, he didn't hear anything that Tadase and Amu were saying. Next thing Ikuto knew, Tadase was climbing into the car, Amu getting sandwiched into the seat in between the two men. Amu turned so that her back was facing Ikuto, staring at Tadase.

"So Tadase-kun," She began cheerfully, her cheeks noticeably pink. Ikuto sighed to himself. Something about the way Amu looked at the blonde irritated him to a great extent. His only consolation was that he himself could make the pink-haired girl blush much, much harder than this guy can.

He was distracted from his thoughts when his phone rang. It was a text from Yoru, accompanied by some pictures he had taken while living the life of a famous violinist.

_Being Tsukiyomi Ikuto is so much fun. I don't see why you hate it so much. If you don't mind, I'd like to be you for a little bit longer. I guess I'm enjoying it a bit too much, eh?_

Ikuto grinned. Perfect. Not like he was going to leave Amu and her road trip anytime soon either.

_Sure. Why not? Personally, I don't want to go back anytime soon either. Somethings I want to get done... and they'll probably take forever for me to finish them. Remember, don't do anything stupid that I'll have to deal with when I get back. Anyways, have fun! I know I am... kind of._

Smiling, he flipped his phone shut and slid it back into his pocket. Ikuto sent one more disapproving glance at Amu and Tadase, who were still animatedly chatting with each other. It wasn't making him happy. He was still a famous celebrity at heart. Just because he hated the large crowds and attention doesn't mean that he loved being ignored like a block of air.

"Wow!" Amu gushed, much to Ikuto's annoyance. "Tadase-kun plans on ruling the world one day?! That's so coooool!"

Tadase smiled at her.

"Maybe when that day comes," He suggested. "You can help me."

Amu's smile stretched beyond it's limits. She looked like she was ontop of the world... or at least she felt that way.

"Come on..." Ikuto muttered to himself. "As if he could rule the world. He'll probably turn our planet into a living hell or something."

Unfortunately, both Amu and Tadase heard that. Amu turned around to send a sharp glare at Ikuto.

"Ikuto!" She exclaimed harshly. "Be nice! I bet that you wouldn't be able to do half as good as Tadase-kun."

Ikuto lifted up a hand to ruffle Amu's bright, bubble-gum pink hair. Amu's glare deepened.

"Whatever," He sighed. "It was just my opinion. Not against the law to disagree with you thought-wise, am I correct?"

Amu didn't say anything, but continued glaring at him. Ikuto took that as a sign that she gave up, so he closed his eyes. Within a few minutes, he drifted into that little land of black known as sleep.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Yaya! This isn't funny!"

"... Yes it is!"

Ikuto was startled awake by someone screaming, followed by a different voice laughing. He blinked sleepy to find his vision completely blocked out by... pink?

He shifted slightly, his surroundings becoming familiar to him again. The car was parked in front of small store, Yaya still in the drivers seat. Only instead of facing forward, her whole body was twisted around so that she could clearly Ikuto while laughing hysterically.

Tadase, on the other hand, had moved to sit up in the front with Yaya, but even he looked like he was trying to hold in a laugh.

And there was something.. on his lap. Something very soft...

Ikuto subconsciously squeezed it tighter, pulling the soft mass closer to him.

"What's going on?" He mumbled, his voice thick from his slight drowsiness. Yaya laughed.

"Look what you're holding on to!" She joked. Ikuto looked down at what was on his lap and his eyes widened in horror. It was Amu, Ikuto's arms wrapped tightly around her slim waist. Amu was visibly trying to free herself, but unfortunately wasn't strong enough to.

"Aruto," She yelled. "Finally! You're awake! Now.. LET ME GO."

Ikuto, still quite a bit shocked, immediately released his arms from around the girl. Amu quickly crawled across the car, taking a seat on the end opposite from Ikuto and glared at him.

"You're even perverted in your sleep," She spat hatefully. "It's disgusting."

Ikuto stared at her, confused.

"How would I know?" He demanded. "Even know, when I'm awake, I still don't know what happened!"

Amu's glare hardened.

"Yaya," She said coldly. "You tell him if you think it's so funny."

Yaya stiffled a giggle.

"Okay," She explained. "Aruto-kun fell asleep... and then a little after wards Amu-chi did too. Then Tadase moved up in the front with me because Amu-chi and Aruto are really boring when they're not talking. So then while Aruto-kun was asleep he pulled Amu onto his lap! You two looked so cute... like you guys were cuddling or something!"

Something suddenly clicked in Amu's brain.

"Yaya," She snapped. "Give me your phone. Now."

Yaya pouted.

"Whyyy?" She whined. "Amu-chi's ruining all my fun!"

"Yaya!"

Tadase turned to Yaya.

"Yuiki-san," He said dissaprovingly. "You know it's wrong to keep things like that when Hinamori-san doesn't want you to."

Yaya frowned at both of them.

"Fine fine," she said chidlishly. "Here."

"She took out her phone and threw it in Amu's direction. Amu caught it and immediately checked through all her pictures.

"Yaya?!" She exclaimed. "How many pictures of this did you take?!"

Yaya shrugged.

"Yaya doesn't know," She said. "She lost track after 28."

Amu sighed.

"I'm deleting them," She said. Yaya's eyes widened in horror.

"No!" She said, lunging for her phone. Amu was too quick for her and pulled it out of reach just in time. Ikuto raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Let me see," He said, scooting closer to Amu to get a look at the phone. Amu instinctively slid away from him.

"Get away, you pervert!" She said. Ikuto rolled his eyes.

"Relax," He muttered. "It's not like I'm going to rape you or anything."

Amu shook her head.

"You never know," She retorted. "Considering your level of perverted-ness."

Ikuto glared at her.

"Whatever," He said. "Just let me see the pictures."

Amu, still watching him cautiously, slowly handed him the phone. Ikuto grabbed it and gave the pictures a close look. They weren't... that bad actually. He felt that he could use them as some sort of blackmail against Amu some time in the future.

Ikuto smirked.

"You know," He said to Amu. "I think I might actually ask Yaya for a few of these."

Amu's eyes widened in horror.

"Baka!" She yelled. "Why would you do that?! I don't want anyone to know this ever even happened! Don't keep any pictures... please?"

It took Ikuto and Yaya up untl then to realize that Amu was truly upset about the whole incident. Ikuto sighed.

"Fine," He said quietly, handing the phone back to it's original owner. "Yaya. Delete all of them."

Yaya frowned. She had no problem deleting the pictures... since in secret she had a whole other memory card full of them anyways. What was really bother her though was Amu's mood... she didn't like it when anyone, especially one of her really close friends, was unhappy.

She quickly deleted all the pictures currently saved on her phone, sliding the card deeper into her jacket pocket. Ikuto noticed this, but didn't make any move to let Amu know about it.

"Send them to me later," He mouthed. Yaya nodded quickly in his direction before smiling brightly at Amu.

"Okay Amu-chi!" She said cheerfully. "Yaya deleted all the pictures. Now can Amu-chi be happy again?"

Amu looked up at the brown-haired and shrugged.

"Well see," She said tonelessly, pushing the car door open and stepping outside. Yaya watched her, a confused expression on her face.

"Where's Amu-chi going?" She asked. Amu smiled at her.

"Don't worry," She said. "I just want to go and get a few things."

With that, she disappeared into the store the car was parked in front of. Tadase straightened up in his seat.

"Well," He said. "I guess we can all take a little break from the car now, since Hinamori-san wants to spend a bit of time here anyways."

Ikuto nodded his agreement, not even bothering to stay anything as he and everyone else got out of the car.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

As Ikuto wandered around aimlessly in the store, he saw Amu, standing alone and particularly close to a corner. Her back was facing him, making it so that Ikuto couldn't see her expression. But something about it told him that it wasn't a very happy one in particular. And something also told him that it was his fault... whether he was actually awake and conscious enough to control what he was doing.

Which reminded him... how _did _they end up like that anyways? He had a hard time believing that he did all that.

Ikuto roughly pushed the thoughts away from his mind. He took a few steps closer to where Amu was standing and tentatively placed an arm on her small shouler.

"Amu..." He said quietly. "I'm... sorry..."

Amu shrugged his arm off from her shoulder and whipped around. Ikuto felt a pang of guilt inside of him when he saw the tears brimming from the corner of her eyes.

" I'm so sorry," He whispered again, secretly alarmed that he could cause that much unhappiness to a girl that he just met earlier that day. "I didn't know that you hated it that much..."

Amu shook her head, using the back of her sleeve to wipe away the tears that had managed to fall down her face.

"It's not you," She said sadly. "It's just... because of that... T-Tadase-kun might think that we like each other or something!"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow. He never thought of it that way before.

"And that's making you unhappy why?" He asked curiously. To be honest, he really didn't know. It wasn't like he himself was desperate for someone to assume something like that, but still. It kind of made him feel good to know that someone actually thought up of something like that.

Amu looked at him.

"You promise not to tell anyone?" She said as quietly as her tears would allow her to. Ikuto nodded.

"I won't tell," He promised. Amu blinked.

"The truth is..." She said softly. "I think I might... I might... _like_ Tadase-kun. A lot."

* * *

**Review please! Sorry the chapter took a bit longer than usual to get out ._. School is a major pain in the ass, even though it's only been three days.**

**Let's quickly sum it up, shall we?**

**First day: Pop quiz on US History; ex ignored me completely the whole day**

**Second day: Spent my whole afternoon + most of my night writing 9 ½ page essay, due the next day; ex said I wasn't fat then continued ignoring me.**

**Third day (Today): Pop quiz in math... which was a little something my teacher managed to snag from the high school .____. I had no idea what half the words even meant so I B.S'ed it; ex stared at me all through the one class we have together but other than that still ignored me.**

**Yep. My life is screwed.**

**Well enough of that. Time to finish Spanish homework + English essay then enjoy the rest of my long weekend! :D**


	5. Realize

**I love three day weekends :) I really do *wastes two days of it doing homework* D:**

**The newest SC manga chapter so depressing ._. I miss my precious Ran already..**

**This chapter would've been done faster if I hadn't spent a majority of today trying to find the nonexistent child-abuse law on personal privacy ._. When your dad walks into the room, takes your laptop, and reads a few IM's, you'll be just like me.**

**Replying time! :DD**

**bendercat: **Tadase's not gay ._. That's just mean

**vampire-fetish15: **Oh my school's evil... when 75% of the population is Asian / Chinese, you're screwed ._. The whole Asian "Get a B and you're grounded for a month. Don't get into Harvard and we're disowning you." thing os so common no one's really surprised when you tell them your parents are like that.

**BubblyAng3l: **"Amuto" Can mean Amuto at the _end_, not the _beginning_.

**candyland21: **I read the manga D: Ran went bye bye... *sad*

**Hakumei . xo: ***points at me* _Junior High_. Well I didn't turn the guy down. We were together... and then broke up. So yeah, it's really awkward position time for me ._.

**rushi luvs anime8D: **I feel bad for him too.

**Snowiisan: **Thank you!

**Amuto20174: **Of course Ikuto's smexiier o_o" He's the sexiest bishie of all sexy bishies.

**xhappily-randomx: **Just wait for it :)

**miserae: **D: I be sad with him then!

**Snowrosex3: **.... And you were the one trying to convince me high school wasn't scary. This isn't any help, you know? D:

**iipinkex3: **:O! I like your penname. Pink!

**XXXXamutofanfn4everXXXX: **.. Oops :)

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: **That sounded like an explosion to me :(

***StrawberryWolf*: **.... I didn't notice that until now ._. Let me go on believing he's Ikuto's identical, okay? :D

***StrawberryWolf*: **Ikuto is better than Tadase. Known fact.

**Neji0932: **Yes you were right ._.

**yumi-echizen: **Same here. Amuto all the way :D

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **Yes it does.

**MysteryPearl: **I'll send you the picture as soon as it becomes... existent :) Gay cookie... still loving that.

**Miki-chann: **School's a pain. Always has been. Always will be.

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **... Well to be honest, when I was a kid I wanted to rule the world too ._. But now I don't. I'd rather stick with loving Ikuto now.

**Mabbi: **At first I really was going to make it Kukai, but I'm a Kutau, so Kukai x anything else would make me feel sad D:

***StrawberryWolf*: **... But I read the manga already. I MISS MY RAN DDD: forget the rest, I don't really care about them. I JUST WANT MY RAN.

**XSaluri-ChanX: **Thank you!

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **OH YESSSSS. *bans homework*

**Also, thank you guys soooooo much for 1OO reviews! :D I love you all.**

------

Ikuto felt all his breath leaving his body.... although he had no idea why. He figured that it would come down to this sooner or later.

So why was it still so shocking to him?

... Until he figured that out, time to stall.

"But why so early?" He asked, pretending to be earnestly curious. "You just met him earlier today, and I don't think less than a day is enough to fall in love with a person."

Amu shrugged and averted her gaze to the ground.  
"I don't know..." She mumbled shyly, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "Just something about him... It makes me like him. A-And I like the way he talks, like he's so sure of everything, and he's really cute tooo..."

Her voice trailed off, leaving Ikuto standing beside the pink-haired girl in an awkward silence. Amu took a deep breath.

"Sorry!" She apologized quickly. "I feel like I'm dumping all my problems on you or something!"

Ikuto frowned, confused.

"Why?" He asked. Amu blinked.

"I mean," She explained. "I'm complaining about how our little... incident is probably going to ruin my chances with Tadase and all that stuff. It's none of your problem, yet I'm still telling you all about it-"

"No," Ikuto interupted her. "It _is _my problem. I caused the little 'incident', so this is all my fault."

Amu smiled softly at him.

"It's not your fault," She whispered reassuringly. "You were asleep. If people can walk in their sleep, then there's no reason why you can't hug someone while asleep."

Ikuto didn't look very convinced. Amu's smile grew wider.

"Come on!" She said, trying her best to sound cheerful. "We've been here for some time. Yaya and Tadase-kun are probably wondering where we are, so we should go back!"

Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed Ikuto's wrist and dragged him out of the store. Ikuto's arm slipped slightly as they were running out, so that Amu was now clutching his hand instead of his wrist. However, she didn't seem to notice as she continued on.

Ikuto, on the other hand, did notice. Her hand was so soft. And warm enough to send a tinging feeling up the blue-haired man's spine. It felt... strangely good, as if he was holding all the power in the world in his grip instead of a girl's hand.

As Amu lightly walked out of the store, she realized something. Earlier in that corner of the store, she had poured her heart out to Ikuto. Ikuto. Ikuto the pervert. Ikuto the one who would make fun of her. Ikuto the guy who's hand she was holding at this moment.

She hadn't known him for even a day yet, and she was already doing this kind of stuff with him. Her pace noticably slowed, going down from a happy skip to a slugish walk.

"Why so slow all of a sudden?" Ikuto called out from behind her, startling the pink-haired girl. Amu shook her head vigorously.

"Oh," She said. "Nothing. Just thinking about something."

Ikuto shrugged, following Amu at her extremely slow pace.

Once the two of them arrived outside, they saw Yaya and Tadase, chatting with each other outside of the car. The two of them seemed really interested in the conversation, each one saying something to make the other even more interested as the talked. Amu released Ikuto's hand, running towards Tadase.

"Tadase-kun!" She shouted out cheerfully. "Hi!"

Tadase smiled at her politely.

"Hinamori-san," He said in that princely voice of his. "I thought you were going to go buy some things in the store."

Amu shrugged.

"Oh," She replied in a falsely cheerful tone. "I couldn't find anything I wanted."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow at her.

_Or maybe you didn't even _look_ for anything._

Amu ignored the look Ikuto was sending her and continued smiling at Tadase. Tadase however, wasn't even looking in the pink-haired girl's direction. His gaze was focused on Yaya, who was entertaining herself by becoming totally intrigued by a butterfly fluttering by.

"So Yuiki-san," Tadase asked, breaking into Yaya's line of thought. "Where do you want to go next?"

Yaya jumped slightly, startled, but relaxed when she saw that it was just Tadase.

"Oh," She said. "Yaya... didn't exactly plan anything. How about just driving and hoping for the best?"

Tadase shrugged and turned back to Amu.

"Did that work for you while you were with her?" He asked. Amu nodded, smiling at the fact that Tadase chose to ask her instead of Ikuto. Ikuto just rolled his eyes. He turned around and walked back into the store, muttering something along the lines of "Come and get me when you're done talking."

Yaya watched as Ikuto disappeared into the small building.

"Amu-chi," She said, tugging on the pinkette's arm. "Aruto-san doesn't look very happy."

Amu shrugged off Yaya's grip.

"Not now," She hissed, returning to her conversation with Tadase. Yaya frowned.

_It's almost like Aruto's never happy when Amu-chi and Tadase are talking..._

Inside the store, Ikuto leaned against a shelf boredly as he glared out the window. Something about the way Amu smiled at Tadase, the way she laughed with him, the way she talked about him as if he were the best thing in the world...

It bothered him. He didn't like it. Not one bit.

Why...?

**~ Three Weeks Later ~**

Ikuto sighed as he looked out the car window. Amu and Tadase were still talking to each other... and ignoring Ikuto. It was like the first day all over again.

Suddenly, the car pulled to a stop on the side of the empty road they were on. Amu jumped up, slightly startled.

"Yaya," She asked. "Why'd we stop?"

Yaya streched.

"Yaya's tired," She complained. "Let's just stop here for today."

Tadase glanced out the window.

"Actually," He commented. "It is getting kind of late. We should stop now."

Yaya perked up, however, when she saw where they had stopped.

"But now Yaya wants to go outside and play around a bit," She begged. "So please?"

Amu looked outside to see what Yaya was so excited about. Her face lit up.

"Yeah!" She said enthusiastically. "We should!"

Outside the car was a small beach. It was fairly large and clean, no trash llitter around like many beaches that Amu have seen. Off to the left of the sand was a small wood, and somewhere in the distance on the right was a small hotel.

"Can we stay here tonight?" Yaya pleaded. Amu smiled.

I kind of want to stay here too," She added. "The beach looks like a lot of fun."

Yaya grinned and grabbed Amu's arm.

"Amu-chi agrees with me!" She exclaimed happily. "So we're staying."

Amu thought for a moment.

"Wait hold on," She said. "Does Tadase-kun want to stay here too?"

Tadase shrugged.

"I already said that we should, remmeber?" He asked. Amu frowned.

"Oh yeah huh..." She said sheepishly. Ikuto smirked.

"And I still don't get a say in any of this," He muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for only Amu to hear. She turned and stared at him.

"Maybe if you stopped being a pervert," She said stubbornly. "I would actually care about what you wanna say then."

Ikuto shook his head, still smirking. Yaya hopped out of the car, Amu following right behind her. Tadase shrugged; he had nothing to better so he too stepped out. Ikuto sighed. Might as well get out also then. Maybe he'll find a chance to tease Amu.

As he walked around on the beach, he felt a small tug on his sleeve. Ikuto turned around and saw Amu, staring at the ground while gripping the fabric of the shirt in one of her fists.

"Aruto..." She whispered. "Can you do me a favor?"

Ikuto looked confused.

"Depends. What is it?" He asked. Amu looked at him, then at everything around her to make sure no one else could hear. Yaya was far away, splashing around in the water as Tadase stood off the the side and warned her not to go too deep.

The pink-haired girl seemed slightly satisfied, and gripped Ikuto's shirt harder. She pulled him on and on, into a small clump of trees. Once there, she sat him down on a rock.

"I want you to help me," She said. Ikuto raised an eyebrow, looking around at the place Amu brought him to.

"I know that," He said. "But why here? In a place so empty... are you going to rape me or someting?"

Amu's cheeks instantly turned bright red.

"I wil when hell freezes over!" She yelled. Ikuto smirked.

"Of course you're not raping me, you pervy kid," He joked, shaking his head in mock shame. Amu glared at him.

"How am I the perverted one" She demanded. "You came up with the whole idea!"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Yeah yeah, just keep going on thinking about whatever keeps you sane," He said. "So seriously. Why am I here?"

The redness on Amu's cheeks was beginning to fade away, yet there was still a lighter pink coloring them.

"I-I want to confess to Tadase-kun about how I like him..." She told him. "But I'm really...n-nervous... so I was wondering if I could.... practice my confession on you?"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"Why me?" He asked. Amu stared at him, eyes wide.

"Please?" She begged. "You're the only one right now that knows I like Tadase! And if I let Yaya know about any of this she'll tell him!"

Ikuto stared at Amu. The small pinkette's expression was filled with so much desperation. The blue-haired man sighed. He couldn't resist a face like that.

"Fine," He said. "I'll help you."

Amu's face lit up.

"Really?!" She asked excitedly. Ikuto nodded.

"There's really nothing I have to be doing anyways," He added. "Since you basically want me to sit here and listen to you, right?"  
Amu nodded vigorously as she smiled.

"Thanks!" She said happily. Ikuto sat up.

"So let me hear it," He said. Amu smiled and opened her mouth to begin...

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~  
(A/N. Right when I was typing this part I got a neck cramp D: )**

"Okay," Ikuto said, sitting up and stretching a bit. "I think we're done."

He had been sitting in the same position for the past two hours, constantly giving Amu advice on how she could improve her confession.

Amu looked at him.

"You sure?" She asked nervously. Ikuto smirked at her.

"Yep," He said reassuringly. And he wasn't lying either. Amu had sounded so sincere, so honest was she was saying it. It almost made Ikuto think that Amu was confessing to _him _instead of _practicing _on him for Tadase.

.... But now that he thought about it, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Ikuto realized that he wouldn't mind that much if Amu had told him all of that instead of to Tadase.

Why?

He didn't know yet. But something about how she said it.. it felt nice. It would probably feel very wonderful if someone was told something like that by Amu with so much sincerity from the bottom of her heart.

A small part of Ikuto wished that he was Tadase. Being adored so much by someone like Amu.

Amu stood up. The sudden movement pulled Ikuto out of his thoughts.

"Well then," The pink haired girl said. "Now what?"

Ikuto smirked.

"We go back," He answered. "Unless you really _do _want to rape me, you pervy kid."

Amu's cheeks were completely red again.

"I do not!" She screamed. "So are we going to go back or not?"

Ikuto shrugged and followed Amu back to the beach.

As the two of them walked back, Ikuto fell into step a little bit behind Amu. He took this time to study every part of her. Her shoulder lengthed pink hair, her skirt that swayed with the wind, her long, slender legs, her happy gait, everything.

Amu suddenly turned around, a strange glint in her eyes.

"Last one back's a rotten egg," She challenged. Ikuto smirked.

"You're on," He said, breaking into a full run. Obviously Amu was slower than him, so he decided to slow down just a bit her. Enough for her to be close behind him, but not enough so that she would pass him.

Amu laughed softly and sprinted after him, even though she had no chance of passing Ikuto again. She was so concentrated on the running man in front of her that she didn't notice a giant, brown tree root sticking out of the ground.

... And tripped on it.

Amu let out a small yelp as her foot got caught in the root. She felt her self falling forward, and squeezed her eyes shut as she waited for the impact. The ground wasn't exactly the softest carpet in the world, and Amu knew of this fact.

But it never came.

Whatever she landed on was.... warmer? Amu tentatively opened one eye and saw a lot of blue. She took a deep breath, breathing in the smell of... shampoo...

That was strange. Amu sat up a little bit and saw that saw that she was laying down on Ikuto's back.

.... Wait, what?

-----

**Review? :D Please?**

**I hate this chapter. I really do. It's almost as if this whole chapter was pointless and it would've done better for me to just have never written this one. Plus if I remember correctly, I used the whole "Amu falls on Ikuto" scene in **_**Love Lies **_**also.... whatever.**

**Still.**

**Review.**

**Oh yeah... one more thing. I want you guy's advice on something. A little while ago, I made some friends on FF, as in I have no idea who they are whatsover, but I talked to them every now and then. So... let's call her "A" shall we? So then A and I became really good friends, despite... age differences? So then what do you do when you er... stalk her for a little bit... and realize that she's been lying to you. Everything she's ever said to you was a lie. She lied about **_**everything**_**. And you used to trust her like you would any of your really good friends, and then you found out she lied to you about everything. And most of all she lied to you about who she really was. You've told her nothing but the truth, and she tells you nothing but lies.**

**... so what now? I honestly have no idea about whether I should ask her about it, or what ._. *fails* HELP MEH.**

**And I just realized how short this story is going to be ._. **


	6. Tragic

**... So much goddamn homework D:**

**Anyways: TELL ME YOUR BIRTHDAYS. I didn't realize so many people's birthdays were this month ._. I've been running around **_**everywhere **_**trying to find decent presents for them all... Anyways, I can't get you FF people anything.. since well.. I have no idea where you guys live ._. But still. Tell me your birthdays so I can be all "HAPPY B-DAY :D" or something at the beginning of the chapter :)**

**Because seriously. I hate it when someone gives me **_**no hints **_**about their birthdate, and then suddenly on that day they come to me and are all like "It's my birthday today! ... So where the hell's my present?" It makes me feel so guilty that I had no idea before hand D: So yeah. Tell me your birthdays before the guilt kills me. And if you don't tell me, then don't tell me on the day of your birthday, because then I'll just ignore you :)**

**... and is it normal for a 5"3 13 year old to fit into and wear size four - five shoes? o_____o I'm sorry, it's just that I'm the only person I know that has feet that size that's my age... and my friend said it might be some defect in my body or something ._. So yeah... I guess you could say I'm a bit scared.... *glares at feet* GROW.**

**And it's funny how I'm writing most parts out of this story using scenes that I planned for previous stories... and they just never got written. Compile all my old ideas and viola~ you get a new story xD**

**Review reply time:**

**miserae: **Just wait for it :)

**insulife: **Really? I've always loved Yaya. I like her hair the most though o_o Quality over quantity... though I thought neither were that great last chapter.

**bendercat: **I just don't like Tadase because Ikuto's downright better than him x)

**Snowiisan: **... You were so much more talkative in our PMs ._.

**xhappily-randomx: **Happy happy day :D

**Joker4ever: **I would update faster if it wasn't for _some people_... *points at teachers*

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **I don't mean I gave away anything _personal_, it's just that whatever I did tell her was the truth. But still, I hate liars. Especially ones that go to that extent. "Online besties" or whatever it is she wanted to call us.

**Soccerluver04: **... Oops. It's supposed to be all Aruto :)

**Soccerluver04: **Okay so basically Ikuto doesn't want Amu and Yaya to know that he's Ikuto, so he told them that his name was Aruto to trick them. So whenever Amu and Yaya are adressing Ikuto they call him Aruto. Hope I cleared it up :) Just ask me on AIM or something if you still don't get it.

**Snowrosex3: ***yawns* I is sleepy too... Stop complaining D: I'm working on it.

**xXIkutos-Secret-LoverXx: **O_O

**. '. Sympho. '.: **Thank you!

**cOnFiRmEd InSaNiTy: **Well I haven't been getting much sleep anyways so loosing a bit more won't kill me.

**Hakumei xo: **I go to a school dominated by Asians. High school is going to be hell for me.

**Neji0932: **It does, huh. D: Yes yes. Such a pointless chapter. But I needed something to kill some space D: And a reason for Amu and Ikuto to get away for a bit...

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **Thank you~

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: ­**... huh. I never thought of it that way. But if that's the real reason it makes me less mad at her :)

**XSaluri-ChanX: **Thank you :D

**HlorkexD: **... I think I might've messed up ._.

**MysteryPearl: **D: NO. Not unless I kidnap him first :3

**amuto fan: **But that's not the real her. What you're saying is basically being friends with a personality that doesn't really belong to anybody.

**Amuto20174: **I'm trying to find that out.

**Foxgrl18: **She will when I say so :)

**vampirefetish15: **Oh too much of our school is Asian. But yes. Emo Asians are hawttt. D: I miss Ran. ... And by 'better person' do you mean she wants to portray herself as a druggie? Not that I have anything against druggies, as long as they still have a great personality underneath... it just intrigues me to why people would want to become one of those...

**Candyland21: **Thank you :D

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: **It's pretty easy. Add her on Facebook, add two of her active friends on Facebook, and bam. You can see all their wall-to-walls and everything :D And yes. Everything she said was a lie.

**HARDCORE AMUTO-FAN #1: **I agree :)

**kawaiimiyu-chan: **Thank you x)

**miruku-chi: **I'm working on it D: Darn you homework...

**lol: **So many people pointed that out ._. I've just been too lazy to change it.

**foe-shizle-meh-hizle: **Yes he does :)

**Dark Midnight Dream: **Thank you! :D

**Kags21: **Thank you xD

**Kags21: **Thank you~

**Kags21: **Thank you!

**Kags21: **Yeah... he doesn't.

**Kags 21: **I"m trying D:

**... the number of reviews is going downnn ._. But I understand why. School + the fact that this story is extremely boring right now. I don't blame you guys for dropping this story. But you're not the only one with way too much schoolwork. Remember that.**

**But I still love all you guys who bother to review :D**

_**AND FOR YOU PEOPLE THAT SKIP MY AUTHOR'S NOTES, AT LEAST READ THIS PART:**_

**.. Yeah. Thanks for reading this part :) But I wanted to tell you that while I was er... doodling in English class (what? I finished everything I was supposed to T_T), I realized that three days is a bit early to confess... so I changed it to three weeks. I even changed last chapter to prove it. So there. Yeah... thanks for wasting thirty seconds of your life reading this xDD**

**

* * *

**

It took Amu a few moments to realize that Ikuto, who was still under her, wasn't moving.

"Aruto!" She gapsed, scrambling off of him. However... he still wasn't moving. Panicking, she began to shake him.

"Come on.." Amu muttered. "Move or something!"

Ikuto still didn't move. Amu began to start to feel scared.

"Please?" She begged, sounding genuinely frightened.. "I don't want to have killed you or anything...."

That did it. Ikuto's whole body suddenly becak to shake, loud laughs escaping his mouth. Amu jumped back for a moment, shocked. She hadn't expected him to suddenly start moving, not when she was half convinced that Ikuto was dead or something strange like that.

"Aruto...?" She asked slowly. Ikuto sat up, still chuckling quite a bit.

"You were really scared, weren't you?" He asked once his laughter died away. "Admit it. You were scared."

Amu glared at him.

"Baka!" She yelled. "I was really worried that something happened to you!"

Ikuto shook his head as he stood up.

"You really thought I'd die that easily?" He joked. "I mean, if you fell ontop of anybody else like that, knowing you you'd probably kill them. But not me."

Amu stomped her foot in frustration as a smirk began to form on Ikuto's face.

"It's not funny!" She exclaimed angrily. "Seriously. I was seriously scared that you were hurt or something. Not so much that _I _did it.. but still."

Ikuto's smirk softened.

_So she really does care..._

Amu suddenly bounded a few feet in front of Ikuto.

"Now come on," She told him. "I don't want Tadase-kun thinking _you_ raped me or something."

At the mention of "Tadase-kun", Ikuto's happy mood immediately disappeared. But he shrugged and followed Amu back.

... Yet, for some reason, a small part of him hoped that Amu's confession went badly. Very badly.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Eh..?" Amu asked once the two of them arrived back at the beach. "Where'd they go?"

Ikuto looked around. Amu was right... where _was _that blonde haired loser?

The beach was completely empty of people. In fact, the only things that _were _on the beach were the sand, the water, and a bird poking his head into the sand for who knows what reason.

Amu frowned.

"Maybe they're in the car," She said, glancing in the direction that their car was in. Ikuto looked too, and there was no one there either.

... But there was a white square of... something?... on the car hood.

Amu noticed it too, and ran towards the car. By the time Ikuto got there, Amu had already ripped off the white square and was staring at it.

"Well...." Ikuto asked slowly after a few seconds. "What is it?"

Amu blinked.

"To Amu-chi and Aruto-kun," She read aloud. "I wanted to go look around some more, but Tadase said that I shouldn't go alone, so he went with me. See you two whenever we get back. -Yaya. P.S. Don't eat any of Yaya's snacks while we're gone, or your head will.... bitten off."

The pink-haired girl's face fell.

"Well that sucks," She said unhappily. "Now I have to _wait_?!"

Ikuto frowned. _Someone _was a bit impaitent today. He stepped into the car.

"If we're going to wait here for them," He said. "Then I'm at least going to wait in the car, where I can't feeze my butt off."

Amu sighed and climbed into the car also, squeezing herself into the small space on the seat between Ikuto and the cardoor.

"Move over, will you?" She muttered. Ikuto smirked and shook his head.

"Not until you tell me why you like Tadase so much," He said jokingly, but underneath that he was dead serious.

Why did Amu like that kid so much?

Amu shrugged.

"It's like I said earlier," She said, refusing to meet Ikuto's gaze and instead staring at the floor of the car. "I'm not sure what I like about him... I guess everything? He's really cute. He's really sweet and nice. He's really... everything."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"You do realize that retarded is included in 'everything', right?" He asked. Amu's eyes widened.

"Everything _positive_ then," She amended. "Anyways, why don't you ever give Tadase-kun a break? Ever since we pulled him into this trip you've done nothing but say horrible things about him."

Ikuto narrowed his eyes.

"Maybe I just don't like him," He muttered, staring out one of the car windows. "In fact, I still don't see why you like him so much."

Amu turned to frown at him. What was there to not understand? She thought Tadase was everything... positive. How could Ikuto not see that?

She sighed, deciding to give up on Ikuto for now and focusing on her own thoughts. Back there, when she fell on him, why was she so worried? Ikuto was right; just Amu falling on him wasn't enough to kill someone. Common sense.

So why was she still scared that something bad had happened?

It was just another one of Ikuto's cruel jokes, playing dead for a little bit just to get a good laugh out of Amu's fright. That was probably it.

_Besides... if I fell on anyone like that I would be worried... wouldn't I? It's basic courtesy to worry about someone if you might have injured them._

But did the way she worried about Ikuto count under that category? Amu just assumed she would, since this was probably the first time she had to worry about any person because she fell on them.

Shrugging, Amu turned her attention to the window next to her, the one opposite from the one Ikuto was looking through.

Outside, the sun glowed a bright orange as it slowly sank behind the shadows of the ocean. Amu smiled at the pretty scene outside.

"Aruto," She said softly, reaching behind her to tug on his sleeve. "Look."

In an instant, Ikuto was looking outside the same window too, leaning forward from behind Amu. However, after a couple seconds he grew rather bored and switched his attention to Amu, who was still grinning out the window.

By now, the sun had set completely and they were surrounded by the dark night sky.

"That was so pretty..." Amu whispered. Ikuto shrugged.

"It was okay," He said boredly. "I'm more of a sun rise person."

Amu pulled her gaze away from the window to stare at him.

"Same here..." She said. "But Tadase thinks that sun set's are better, so maybe if I convince myself that it's true.. then maybe he'll like me better..."

Ikuto riased an eyebrow.

"You honestly think that your preference to whether the sun is going up or down is going to change how Tadase feels about you?" He asked skeptically. Amu blushed and looked away.

"No.." She mumbled. "But if we have more things in common then it might."

Ikuto frowned. Now she was going to change everything about_ herself_ to get the idiot to like her?

How stupid.

Amu turned back to look outside at the dark sky.

"At least the moon's pretty too," She commented, brightening just a bit. "Hopefully Tadase thinks that way too..."

As if right on cue, Yaya's face popped up in the window, blocking Amu's view of the "pretty" moon.

"Yaya!" Amu yelled, slightly shocked about the sudden face covering her vision.

"Boo!" Yaya laughed, a little bit late but nevertheless still giggling uncontrollably. Tadase appeared too a few seconds later.

"Yaya," He scolded playfully. "It's not nice to tease people like that."

Yaya shrugged.

"Yaya thinks it's nice," She pointed out. Tadase laughed and shook his head.

"Well then," He suggested. "Should we get going again then?"

Amu suddenly jumped up.

"Actually, Tadase-kun," She said nervously, cheeks at their brightest red yet. "T-There's something I... I want to tell you..."

Tadase smiled at her patiently.

"Okay..." He told her gently. "So what is it?"

Amu glanced around her and frowned at Yaya, who was watching her with wide eager eyes, and Ikuto, who was watching with a rather bored face.

"A-Actually..." She stammered. "Can we go talk... somewhere else?"

Tadase looked at Yaya and then nodded understandingly. Amu smiled shyly and then hopped out of the car, Tadase following close behind her.

As soon as they were a far distance away, Yaya silently got out of the car. Ikuto watched her curiously.

"And what are you up to?" He asked suddenly. Yaya looked at him.

"Come on," She whined. "Yaya knows that Aruto-kun wants to hear what Amu-chi's telling him! So shut up and follow me."

Ikuto shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to hear the confession he helped the pink-haired girl practice for hours on end, right?

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Ikuto and Yaya crouched in a bush, watching Amu and Tadase carefully. Ikuto frowned. So far all Amu had done was make small talk, nothing even _close _to the confession that they had rehearsed.

_Oh come on... it's been almost a freaking half an hour! Hurry up already!_

Amu was suddenly silent, as if she was lost in her own little world of thoughts.

"U-Um... Tadase-kun," She said after a moment of silence. "I a-actually asked you to come here with me so that I-I could tell you t-that... that... that I like you! Tadase-kun, I like you!"

Tadase took a step back, eyes wide with surprise. He began to say something, but Ikuto was too far away and couldn't hear much of it clearly. However, there were ten words that Ikuto could hear perfectly.

And to Amu, they weren't very good words.

"I'm sorry.. but I can't I feel the same way."

* * *

**:O!**

**Care to review? x) I'll love you if you do.**


	7. Being With You

**So many birthdays to remember ._. *writes them all in calendar***

**Oh and happy birthday to Snowwiisan, The Black Stray, xXLove'n'HateXx, Natsuya801923, and Amuto20174! May you all have a nice time being... er... older? :D**

**AKDJSLK. I still hate school D: I swear the world would be a better place if a certain one of my teachers died ._. Failing me because I can't right a page long explanation for why 5+3=8. T_T I want to kill her.**

**Just finished watching Death Note.. after stretching it out for what? Almost two months now? But it was so good :D Poor Misa-Misa though. She was freaking adorable... and then Light dies on her D: Light was hot. Very hot. Ah well. On to watching Macross Frontier! x)**

**Started reading the book **_**Lock and Key**_** by Sarah Dessen. It's really good :O Nao I demand that all of you guys get off your asses, go to a bookstore, buy the book, and read it :) I love that book~ But then again I've always been a huge fan of Sarah Dessen's books, so I might be a bit biased :P Oh well.**

**Chapter might have wayy too many spelling errors. I haven't had Word for a while, so I've been doing the chapters on WordPad, which you know doesn't have a spell-check program. So I used to use one online, but then they recently closed due to maintainence costs. So I've got no spell check now because I haven't had the time to go look for a new one. Just... deal with the spelling errors, onegai?**

**Reply time~**

**vampire-fetish15: **March 17th... 13 days before mine :)

**insulife: **May 3Oth.. exactly two months after my b-day x) I was totally dissapointed with the animated hug ._. It failed. But still. Seven seas treasure was hot enough to become my new wallpaper... for my laptop, desktop, phone, other phone, and itouch xDD I'm so dorky, aren't I?

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: ***facepalms with you*

**. '. Sympho.' . : **Thank you!

**bendercat: **Yes yes, you knew it :)

**The Black Stray: **D: AWWWW. I missed it... oh well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY :D No it's not going to happen here, I've got something else planned :)

**Snowiisan: **Well happy birthday to you then! :D

**Neji0932: **Yes he does

**xhappily-randomx: **... Well I've had my fair share of times being shot down ._.

**darkjewl: **Ohmygod. No way. Your birthday's the day after mine xDDDDD

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: ***adds your b-day to calendar*Well I'm not turning 14 until March, so you're not the only one :)

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **Yep.

**miruku-chii: **Thank you!

**XSaluri-ChanX: **Thank you~

**amuto fan: **Thank you :D

**MsxMisunderstood: .**.. Did you ever read any of the previous chapters? At all? ._.

**XxxxClouDxxxX: **I'm trying D:

**Zakuro46: **Thank you!

**Zakuro46: **Thanks~

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **Yeppp :)

**Joker4ever: **I'm trying, I'm trying :O

**KremZen: **Thank you :D

**Zakuro46: **Yes yes

**Zakruo46: **My school is hell. Literally.

**Hakumei. xo: **By "Asian" I meant Chinese ._. Yeah. Only Chinese. It's pretty pathetic, isn't it? Considering I'm contributing to that giganto number of Chinese people. If anything, the hug was cheesier than the pirate. I thought that all those scenes of Amu floating towards him were seriously unecessary ._. The pirate on the other hand was just down right sexy :)

**Snowrosex3: **Well I'm just following cannon plot lines ._. So if you don't like it don't read it....

**xXLove'n'HateXx: **... But the plot isn't very "original". I got the idea from a phone ad, remember?

**xXLove'n'HateXx: **HAPPY BIRTHDAY THEN!!!!!!

**miserae: **lool :)

**MysteryPearl: **Glad you're happy :)

**Miki-Chann: **.______. That makes me feel so much better... knowing that I don't have the smallest feet. My birthday's on March 3Oth :D

**mombo family: **Ah, it'll grow. I was two up till around then too ._.

**Kar-Kar93: **Hey Karlene :D Thanks for reviewing.. and uh, thanks for the advice, even though the whole thing is done and over with already.

**iipinkex3: **Arigatou, kami-sama xDD

**kar-Kar93: **Nah, it's fine. I do that all the time too :)

**xXStrawberryVanillaXx: **... I'm not in high school. I'm still stuck in Jr. High. *adds your b-day to calendar*

**Dark Midnight Dream: **... Tadase's not gay D: How many times do I have to say that?

**Soccerluver04: **Yeah... ._. sadly 9/11 was on a Friday this year, and Friday's practically the only day I have time to write...

**Angel of Randomosity: **.. ._. but you weren't supposed to... it's one of my little mistakes I hope no one ever notices...

**Angel of Randomosity: **Meh... I don't like Miki. I like Ran more :) So much pink adorable ness.

**CharacterClover: **... Don't like. It's not good :O But how would I know if she trusts me enough to or not? She has no idea that I know that she's been lying this whole time ._.

**MangaFanXD: **D: Why not? Meh it's fine. Just don't expect anything from me then.

**Natsuya801923: **Well I replied to you :) Check your inbox. It's too long to put here.

**Amuto20174: **Luckyyy. For my birthday I get nothing useful ._.

**kawaiimiyu-chan: **Thank you!

**Shokara N' Strawberries: **I'm working on it D: Geez.. so hard to balance FF life wtih social life.

**mabbi: ***sigh* Tadase isn't gay _nor _fag. He's just a guy that looks rather... girly. Okay? "Soon but not too soon" o_o" So what time works for you then? Maybe I can try to fit it into my crap schedule.

**1O more reviews 'till 2OO... please? :D**

-----

Ikuto leaned forward in his hiding spot, desperately trying to hear what Amu was saying to Tadase. And yet, the farthest he could go without being caught was still not close enough to hear the most part of what they were saying. He could pick a few words here and there, but that was about it.

_Yaya... why couldn't you have picked a closer bush?!_

He decided to take a small risk, and lean his head out so that it was slightly visible from the other side. As long as neither of them looked in that direction he should be fine.

"...Oh. I see..." He barely heard Amu say. "Well that's.. that's wonderful! Have you told her yet?"

Ikuto frowned at the fake smile plastered on Amu's face. If Tadase took that as a genuine smile, he was even more of an idiot that Ikuto thought of him as.

... And apparently he's extremely stupid. Tadase returned the smile.

"No... not yet," He admitted. Tadase said a little more, but his voice grew softer to the point where Ikuto couldn't hear him anymore. The blue haired man sighed, leaning even more forward to try to hear more.

"Aruto!" Yaya hissed. "If you go out any further Amu-chi's going to hear you!"

Ikuto took no notice of he whining, and continued with what he was doing. A bird suddenly landed on the bush, making one of the leaves rustle as it let out a loud chirp. Tadase instinctively turned in the direction that the noise was coming from. His eyes widened.

"Aruto-san?" He asked, a bit shocked. Ikuto ignored him and stared at Amu, who was taking advantage of Tadase's diverted attention and was trying to sneak off. She turned and saw Ikuto staring straight at her.

"Don't tell him," She mouthed, eyes filled with desperation. Ikuto hesitated, but then smirked.

"What?" He asked Tadase. "It's illegal for me to sit in a bush?"

Tadase glared at him.

"But it might be illegal for you to be evesdropping on Hinamori-san and I," He pointed out.

"Might," Ikuto said slowly, eyeing Amu as she disappeared behind one of the tall trees. "_Mighttttt._"

Tadase frowned.

"Besides," Ikuto continued. "Just for the record, I _wasn't _evesdropping. In fact, I didn't know that you were talking to Amu at all. Are you sure you weren't just talking to yourself?"

"What are you talking about?" Tadase demanded. "Hinamori-san's right- HEY. Where is she?"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"Amu?" He repeated. "What are you talking about? Yaya and I came over and found you standing here by yourself and talking."

"No way!" Tadase argued. "Hinamori-san was right here a second ago!"

Ikuto sighed and turned to Yaya.

"Yaya," He said. "Next stop we make we get Tadase to a doctor, got it? I think there's something wrong with his brain..."

But his eyes said, "Play along or you're dead."

Thankfully, Yaya got both messages.

"Yep," She agreed, nodding. "Tadase needs to go see a doctor for his messed up head."

Tadase only continued glaring at both of them.

"I'm serious," He insisted. "I was here talking with Amu! And then she just... left while I was talking to you two!"

Yaya giggled as Ikuto shook his head in mock shame.

"Well if you're sure," He said, sounding as if he didn't believe Tadase at all. "If you really think so, then maybe I should go look for Amu. If I find her out somewhere then you were telling the truth."

Tadase opened his mouth to say something else, but Ikuto didn't care to hear what it was. He had already turned around and set off to look for the little pink-haired girl.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~  
... And fear the cheeesiness xD**

Amu took a deep breath, shifting her position on the tree branch and tightening her arms around the tree's wide trunk. She had been sitting here for... who knows how long... and watching the still nature around her.

"Hey."

Amu jumped at the sound of the voice, which obviously wasn't hers. She looked down and saw Ikuto, climbing up the tree. He sat on a branch nearby to the one Amu was on.

"Oh," Amu said flatly. "It's _you_."

Ikuto smirked.

"Yes," He told her. "It's me."

Amu frowned and didn't say anything. Ikuto sighed.

"So what happened back there?" He asked. Amu stared at him.

"You should know," She muttered accusingly. "You were listening in to the whole thing.

"Not the _whole _thing," Ikuto corrected her. "I listened to what I could hear from the bush Yaya and I were hiding in."

Amu's frown deepened.

"Yaya was there too?" She asked softly. "So maybe she probably knows then...."

Ikuto straightened up.

"Knows what?" He asked. Amu shook her head and looked away. Ikuto sighed, carefully climbing over so that he was sitting on the same branch as the pink-haired girl. He scooted over so that their arms were touching.

"Now tell me," He instructed. Again, Amu shook her head, only this time she continued staring at him. Ikuto frowned.

"Fine then," He said frustratedly. "Don't tell me."

No response from Amu. She just continued staring blankly in front of her. Ikuto smirked. There was still _one _way to get her to talk.

Ikuto looked at her for a moment then, moving carefully so that neither of them would fall from the tree, slid his hands out. He began moving them up Amu's thighs to her waist. Then he ducked his head down, resting it in the pink-haired girl's lap, and Amu subconsciously smoothed her hands over his hair, running it through her fingers. Ikuto grinned when he felt Amu relax into him, the silence continuing.

After a long while, Amu blinked a couple times and she finally realized what she was doing... and who's head was in her lap. She let out a small scream, jumping slightly. Ikuto finally sat up too, patting the spot of hair on his head that Amu had been petting. He smirked.

"Don't jump up like that," He teased. "Unless you want both of us to fall of this tree and reallly die."

Amu glared at him.

"I wouldn't mind if a pervert like you died!" She spat. Ikuto's smirk softened.

"Now _there's _the Amu I know," He said. Amu's eyes widened. Ikuto wasn't lying. It took him only a few seconds to make her back to her normal, Ikuto the pervert hating self.

Ikuto grinned.

"So are you going to tell me now?" He asked. "Or are you going to let me do that again?"

Amu hesitated for a moment.

"Fine." She said quietly. "T-Tadase said no... because... he said that he liked.... Yaya instead..."

Ikuto was shocked into a moment of silence. He had no way of expecting something like _that_.

"It's kind of sad," Amu continued. "When you love someone, yet you know for a fact that they don't love you back. It feels like a huge slap in the face... a giant slap back into reality..."  
Ikuto frowned. To be honest, what she was saying wasn't so far off from what he was feeling at the moment. Besides, Amu's not so great mood was beginning to spread around, and Ikuto wasn't so eager for it to get to him too anytime soon.

All of a sudden the blue-haired man heard his phone ring. Sighing, he fished it out of his pocket. It was... another text from Yoru.

Just as Ikuto was about to read the text though, he felt the phone being yanked out of his hands. A moment later, he saw it in Amu's hold. The pink haired girl held the phone close to her face as she looked at the text.

"From Tsukiyomi Ikuto," She read aloud. "Long time no talk-"

Ikuto quickly snatched the phone back before Amu could read anything else. Who knew how much of the truth she could squeeze out of whatever it is that Yoru said.

Amu frowned at him.

"It's not nice, you know," She pouted. "To grab something away from someone when they're in the middle of reading it."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"It's also rude," He pointed out. "To _take someone's phone _when they get a text."

Amu ignored that comment.

"Anyways," She said. "Why are you talking to a famous jerkface like him anyways?"

"... Jerkface?"

Amu grinned and nodded.

"Seriously," She said. "I hate him. I hate him and how perfect he thinks he is."

Ikuto frowned. Did Amu realize that the guy she was criticizing was sitting right next to her?

Probably not.

Ikuto sighed.

"Why do you think he's such a bad person anyways?" He asked, trying to defend himself. Amu rolled her eyes.

"I thought I told you all the reasons why on that first day you came with us," She muttered. "You forgot already?"

Ikuto shook his head. Of course he hadn't forgotten, but he had however shoved it all into a corner of his brain to be forever forgotten. Amu sighed.

"Basically," She said. "I don't hate _him_. I hate people _like _him. They think that they're so much better than everyone else just because they're drop dead sexy or something stupid like that."

Ikuto grinned, forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be Tsukiyomi Ikuto at the moment.

"So you think I'm sexy, eh?" He asked slyly. Amu raised an eyebrow.

"You're Tsukiyomi Ikuto?" She asked sarcastically. Ikuto frowned.

"Nooo," He said slowly. "It's just that... uh... that first day we met you said I looked a lot like him. So if you think Tsukiyomi Ikuto is sexy, doesn't that mean you think that _I'm _sexy?"

Amu glared at him, cheeks bright, bright red.

"No way!" She shouted. "You know what? Now I wish you really did die when we feel earlier! Stupid idiot!"

Ikuto looked away and tried to hold in his grin. She didn't realize what she was saying. If she thought Ikuto the famous violinist was hot, then she had to think that Ikuto sitting next to her was hot also. Only she didn't know that the two of them were the same person.

But she did think that he ws a 'jerkface'.

Guess he'd have to fix that, wouldn't he?

"Well then," Ikuto suddenly said, sitting up. "I think you're close enough to being back to your old self again. How about going back then?"

Amu nodded. She even managed a small smile in Ikuto's direction.

"Yeah," She agreed. "How long have we been up here anyways?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"I dunno," He replied. "Maybe a couple hours? Not sure."

Amu looked down at the ground below them and let out a small gasp. Ikuto frowned at her.

"What?"

"Aruto..." Amu whispered in a small voice. "What if I told you that... that I'm scared of heights?"

Ikuto frowned.

"You're scared of heights." He said flatly. "So how'd you manage to get up here in the first place?"

Amu stared at him with wide, scared eyes.

"I don't know!" She said. "Maybe I hadn't looked down until now...?"

Ikuto let out a frustrated sigh.

"So what you're trying to tell me is that you're too scared to try to climb down." He said. Amu nodded.

"Which means we're.... or rather _you're_ stuck here."

"Yep."

-------

**O_O alkdfjalkdsjflksaj OHMYGOD I HATE THIS CHAPTER.**

**Yeah... I really do. I've been kind of 'meh' about it and just writing a few sentences a day. For some reason I doubt it even makes any sense.... oh wells.**

**Well now to watch a bit of Macross Frontier, wait impatiently for Shugo Chara to come out, color some manga, do my math hw, and emo over this chapter's craptastic-ness.**

**... Care to review? x)**


	8. Tree

**Hey hey :)**

**Got my hands on a copy of the DELUXE VERSION of BoA's English CD :DDD It was totally worth the fifteen bucks I bought it off of my friend for.. even if I could've gotten it for nine on iTunes. Because the CD cover is just.. omg so pretty 8D**

**Ep. 1O1 was **_**epic win**_**. I was mentally fangirl screaming when Ikuto smiled and was all, "Which is why this time I'm going to be the one to save you." :D so hotttt**

**Reply time!**

**Snowrosex3: **PFT FINE. Then don't expect any reviews from me either then :D

**Neji0932: **This chapter was oh so very bad. Don't deny it.

**Amuto20174: **Yes this was a very bad chapter. Don't you dare deny it either.

**insulife: **I changed my wallpaper again :) This time it's Ranka from Macross Frontier waving at a sky with clouds in it. Except Ranka's so small half her body gets covered up when there's the task bar at the bottom ._. Ah well. Yeah, I hated that hug. I'll stick with my good old black and white manga hug :)

**vampire-fetish15: **I know right? D: My math teacher's a pain in the freaking ass...

**.'. Sympho.'.: **Thank you!

**bendercat: **Well at least it's better than my b-day. _The day after Tadase's._ So sad. Kid's older than me D:

**Angel of Randomosity: ***facepalms with you* :)

**Shokara N' Strawberries: **Yes she is.

**darkjewl: **It all depends on what year. '96. You?

**Snowiisan: **._. Don't like it. Don't read it. It's that simple.

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **I'm scared of heights too, so I understand perfectly how Amu's feeling right now :D Once I climbed Independence Rock and didn't realize how high up I was until I was at the top. Then I totally freaked out ._.

**RandomlyBoredWolfy: **Replied via PM. Too long to put here :)

**xhappily-randomx: **Yes yes :)

**uh yeah im weird: **Thank you x) By the way, I really love that "Who I Was and Who I Will Be" story by you...only you haven't updated since forever D:

**miruku-chii: **.. Sure why not? xD­­

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **Yeppp :D

**The Black Stray: **Oh wait till you see the paranoia of that scene ;D

**MysteryPearl: ***thinks* I haven't heard that in so long, so I don't think I remember either o__o" But I think it's something like, "First comes the love, then comes the marriage, then comes the baby sitting in a baby carriage" or something ._.

**mombofamily: **Ah well, I'm one of the shorter 8th graders :) So we're even.

**Miki-chann: **But it also means that there's less of a selection of shoes. Last weekend I went out shopping on an attempt to find converse in my side. Took me seven hours and twelve stores.

**Dark Midnight Dream: **It's fine :)

**Hakumei xo: **YES. Exactly. I sort of looked away during the slow-mo entry ._. I disliked it. I like my hand-drawn black and white manga version better ^^

**xMidnightRosex: **Thank you~

**dittoeevee8888: **... uh... you will once I figure out what it is :D

**Kar-Kar93: **Well actually right now, because of your suggestion, I'm typing this on Google Docs 8D

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: **YAY. SOMEONE TO LOVE THE BOOK WITH :D If only my ex was like Nate after he broke up with Heather. But nooo. Now he's like a freaking bastard. Nope. Sorry. I went to the bookstore earlier today to try and find that book, but it was sadly sold out D: So I ended up just getting _The Truth About Forever_ instead. :O! I LOVE CHEESE. Yeah. Cheese is good. Yes yes. Ikuto almost got caughted.

**joker4ever: **Thank you~

**miserae: **... God x)

**XSaluri-ChanX: **Thank you :D

**MangaFanXD: **depracating?? You mean deprecating right? I dunno o_o my English fails so badly I just used spellcheck to figure out what you were trying to say xD

**Hinazuki Miu: **Oh pft. I'd burn the homework any day if I wouldn't get killed for it ;D Sadly if you do burn it here, you get into shitloads of trouble. Even the "My dog ate it" excuse can get you suspended.

**Your Secret Admirer: **:O! NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN. Well, at least _now_ you're included in my author's notes x)

**By the way, thank you for the 22O+ reviews :D**

**.... And thanks to all you people that added me to alerts but didn't review.... not.**

**But seriously. I still love all of you guys :) Just I love the reviewers more than the non-reviewers.**

**

* * *

**

"So you're scared of heights." Ikuto said for the millionth time. Amu frowned and nodded again.

"Stop saying that over and over again!" She complained. "You're making me feel bad."

Ikuto glared at her.

"You should feel bad," He muttered. "Getting both of us stuck in this stupid tree."

"Nu uh!" Amu said. "Getting _me_ stuck in this stupid tree. If you wanted to, you could just get yourself down anytime."

Ikuto shook his head.

"I'm not going to leave you in a tree by yourself," He told her quietly. "So if you're stuck here, then I'm stuck here too."

Amu blinked, cheeks slowly beginning to turn red again.

"Um.. w-well..." She stammered. "T-Thanks."

Ikuto grinned.

"Anyways," Amu said. "You got any ideas on how to get down from here?"

"The easiest way is to just force you to climb down," Ikuto muttered. "But both you and I know that that's never going to happen."

Amu glared at him.

"Does 'Hinamori Amu is scared of heights' mean _anything_ to you!?" She snapped. "I'll probably freak out after thirty seconds of climbing."

Ikuto frowned and pretended to think for a moment.

"So if Amu'll freak out after thirty seconds," He said to himself jokingly. "Then all I have to do is push her off of the tree on the thirty-_first_ second..."

Amu gasped.

"Idiot!" She screamed. "I'd rather be stuck in the tree than be pushed down and probably dying!"

Ikuto smirked.

"If you say so," He snickered. "Then I'll just leave..."

Amu's eyes widened.

"B-But you just said that you'd stay here with me!" She exclaimed. "And now you're telling me that you're going to just leave me here in a tree?!"

Ikuto shrugged.

"You just said that you'd rather be stuck than be pushed down," He said. "So stay in the tree then."

He made a big show of pretending to climb down from the branch that he and Amu were sitting on, when he felt a small tug on his shirt sleeve.

"Well can you stay up here with me then?" She asked in a small voice. "I'm kind of.. uh.... scared to be up here all alone... So stay... please?"

Ikuto smirked and jumped back onto the branch in one graceful leap.

"Stupid," He said. "I thought I already told you-- I'm not getting down until you get down too."

Amu blinked.

"So..." She said slowly. "You weren't seriously going to leave this whole time...?"

Ikuto shook his head.

"Nope," He told her, shaking his head. "I just wanted to see you beg for me to stay."

Amu glared at him.

"You jerk!" She yelled. "Why is that whenever I'm seriously scared you seem to find it funny?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Who knows?" He asked. "But you've got to admit, you look cute when you're scared like that."

Amu pointedly turned so that her back was facing Ikuto. Ikuto watched her carefully, thinking of ways to make her scared again while getting both of them down from the tree.

He snuck one more glance at Amu, who was still stubbornly turned away from him. The back of his mind wondered if his plan would work. Ikuto shrugged. It was worth a shot.

The blue haired man slowly climbed off the branch, making sure to make tons of noise while doing so to get Amu's attention. And he did. As the girl in mind whipped around immediately at the sound of the rustling leaves. Her eyes widened when she saw Ikuto getting off of the branch.

"Aruto!" She cried. "I thought you said you were stay- oh wait. You're just trying to scare me again, aren't you?"

Ikuto shook his head, smirking.

"Nope," He said, extending an arm out to grab Amu. Amu fell off the branch with a slight squeak and landed into Ikuto's waiting arms. She gasped softly when she found herself pressed closely to Ikuto rather than falling through the sky and landing on the ground.

"Now hold on," Ikuto instructed, his voice slightly muffled because of Amu's arms already wrapped tightly around his neck and head. "Unless you want to fall down and die."

Amu nodded, tightening her hold even more.

"By 'holding on'," Ikuto gasped. "I meant tight enough so that you won't fall. Not tight enough so that you'd strangle me."

"But if I don't then I'll probably fall," Amu retorted. Ikuto let out an exasperated sigh.

"Relax," He said. "I'm not going to let you fall. If I do then you're going to die, and if you die I'll have no one to bother anymore."

Amu glared at him, but reluctantly loosened her arms.

"You pervert..." She muttered. "Anyways, I bet you planned for us to be in this position, didn't you?"

Ikuto looked down, and, sure enough, the two of them _were _in a position that he... preferred. Amu clung on tightly to him with her head resting on his shoulder, while Ikuto was using both arms and both legs to hold on to the tree and keep them from falling.

"Actually," He said, a sly smirk playing around his lips. "I didn't plan for it to be like this, but now that you mention it...."

"I don't want to hear it!" Amu interrupted him as her face began to flush again. "Now just get us off of this stupid tree!"

"Well you were the one who brought it up," Ikuto muttered, but slowly started to climb down the tree. Amu ignored him, focusing only on holding on so that she wouldn't fall down from where she and Ikuto were on the tree.

Ikuto smiled as he felt Amu burying her face into his neck. Even though he had to scare the crap out of Amu to get her to do this, it was all worth it.

Now if only the pink haired girl would do the exact same thing if she wasn't so frightened of falling to her doom from a pretty small tree.

Amu finally lifted up her head when she heard Ikuto landing softly onto the ground.

"You can let go now, you know?" She heard Ikuto say to her. "I'm seriously starting to wonder who's the pervert now, since you're the one still holding on."

Amu immediately jumped away from Ikuto, arms folded in front of her chest.

"Well I know the answer to _that _question!" She snapped. "Obviously it's you!"

Ikuto smirked.

"But I know when to let go of a person," He pointed out. "In fact, I wouldn't have held on to them at all, since _I'm not scared of trees._"

Amu just glared at him.

"Just wait..." She muttered. "Someday, somehow, the whole world will know that _you're _the real pervert."

Ikuto just grinned and shook his head.

"Now come on," He said. "I think I see them.... wayyy over there."

Amu looked in the direction Ikuto was talking about. Sure enough, Tadase and Yaya were sitting side by side on the sandy beach. There was a small fire that they had built cackling in front of them.

The pink haired girl's mood immediately dropped into a saddened one. She took a deep breath.

"Might as well get this over with," She mumbled under her breath.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Yaya boredly picked up a small twig and began drawing random designs into the sand with it.

"Where's Amu-chi," She whined. "Yaya's really bored without her...."

Beside her, Tadase let out a frustrated sigh.

"'Amu-chi's right here," A voice behind them said. Yaya spun around and saw Ikuto, being pulled by Amu, walking towards them. Yaya's face broke into a wide grin.

"Amu-chi!" The brown haired girl exclaimed, jumping up and running over to throw her arms around Amu.

"Y-Yaya..." Amu laughed nervously. "You can... let go now..."

Yaya reluctantly released the pink haired girl.

"Amu-chi was gone for so long," She pouted. "and all Yaya wanted to do was give her a 'welcome back!' hug..."

Amu frowned and turned back to Ikuto.

"How long were we gone?" She asked him. Ikuto glanced at his wrist

"Well...." He said slowly. "Unless my watch is wrong.... I'd say a little over four hours..."

Amu's eyes widened.

"To think that we could pass so much time just by having a pervert making fun of me being scared of heights," She muttered under her breath. Ikuto grinned.

"Now you know if you just climbed down that tree by yourself like a good little girl we could've been down loads sooner, no?" He teased. Amu glared at him.

"Not my fault I'm scared of heights," She argued. Ikuto shook his head.

"But it _is _your fault that I had to carry you down," He pointed out. Amu opened her mouth to say something back but was cut off by a jumpy brown-haired girl.

"Yaya doesn't like all this arguing!" She exclaimed unhappily. Ikuto and Amu both stared at her. Yaya stared back.

"What?" She asked innocently. "It's wrong to dislike it when two people are fighting?"

Amu shrugged.

"I'll agree with you when the pervert shuts up," She said simply. Ikuto shrugged.

_Ah well. At least I tried._

From the corner of his vision, Ikuto saw Amu and Tadase looking at each other, as if they were having their own little telepathic conversation. Amu nodded once and smiled encouragingly at the blonde. Tadase returned the smile and then turned to face Yaya.

"Eh... Yuiki-san," He began shyly. "There's something I want to tell you. I-"

"Oh my gosh!" Yaya yelled, totally oblivious to what Tadase was attempting to tell her. "That bird is so pretty!"

Amu glanced in the direction Yaya was watching the "bird" from. It looked like any normal bird, but then again, who knew what Yaya could imagine about it. Yaya turned to Amu.

"Amu-chiiii," She begged. "I want to watch that bird for a little bit more. Can you come with me?"

Amu frowned.

"But Yaya..." She said. "I just got back from sitting in a tree all for a few hours. I'm not really in the mood to go walk around some more."

"But Yaya really wants to go!" Yaya pouted. Amu thought for a moment, then brightened.

"I know!" She told the brown haired girl. "Tadase could go with you!"

"Me?" Tadase repeated, a bit surprised. Amu nodded her head vigorously.

"Uh huh!" She assured him. "Then maybe Yaya gets tired of following the bird you can go _tell her what you were saying_."

Tadase seemed to understand it. His broke out into a smile.

"Well then... Yuiki-san," He said. Yaya immediately turned around the face him. "We should go find that bird now before it flies too far off."

Yaya smiled at him.

"Tadase's better than Amu-chi," She announced. "Since Amu-chi wouldn't go follow the bird with me."

Amu just laughed and shook her head.

_I give up.._

When she looked up again she already saw Yaya dragging Tadase off to who knew where to find the bird. She turned to Ikuto.

"And once again," She complained. "I'm stuck with the disgusting pervert."

Ikuto however, didn't look like he was in the mood for being a pervert.

"I thought you liked him...." He said, sounding like he was just voicing his thoughts. "So why are you suddenly trying to get Yaya with him."

Amu thought for a moment.

"I don't know..." She said quietly. "While I was stuck in that tree with you, I realized something. Maybe... maybe like Tadase was another one of those things that I forced myself into..."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"Forced yourself into?" He repeated, confused. Amu nodded.

"Yeah," She said. "Remember how I told you earlier that maybe I could tell myself to like sunsets instead of sunrises so that I could have more in common with Tadase? Well then I was forcing myself into something. I was so sure that I could really like the sunrise if I just kept telling myself that I did over and over again. I'm not sure, but maybe I was doing with me liking Tadase...."

(A/N. That made no sense. At all. I'm sorry.)

Ikuto studied her calm face for a moment. He couldn't tell how she was feeling just by looking.

"So you don't like him anymore?" He asked one more time.

"Like I said earlier," Amu said. "I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I... I don't... I mean, it felt really bad at first to know that he was going to chose Yaya over me. But then I saw how happy the two of them looked together, so maybe... maybe it would be better if we kept it like that."

Ikuto didn't say anything, and Amu returned the silence. The two of them just stood there like that for a while; Ikuto staring at Amu as the pink haired girl distantly stared off to some random point in space.

"Amu," Ikuto suddenly said after a long pause of quiet. "What would you do if I said... if I said that I liked you?"

"I would say that you were a lying pervert," Amu responded automatically, not averting her gaze even once. Ikuto walked around so that he was standing right in the center of Amu's line of vision. Now he had her full attention.

"Now," He said, more seriousness coloring his tone than last time. "What if I said I liked you... and then did this?"

And then he leaned down and gave her a kiss.

* * *

**Wow... that was... fail.**

**Review anyways.**


	9. Shy Love

**I hated episode 102. They turned a DATE, an whole airport / kiss scene, and a cheesy goodbye into thirty seconds of anime.**

**Starting watching Itazura Na Kiss. It strangely reminds me of Gauken Alice and Special A combined into one ridiculously entertaining anime.**

**Oh and I made a Tumblr x) only since everyone else I know has one. snowyfantasii . tumblr . com If any of you guys have one, then let me know so I can start stalking you :D But mine is more of my personal / school life, so it might get a bit confusing at times x) Since I explain nothing.**

**Thanks to everyone who voted **_**"Yes" **_**on that poll on my profile page x) I love you too. And bleh to those who voted **_**"no"**_**. :[**

**... And I just realized that I've totally broken away from my original idea-- phone commercial. Now this story's got like... nothing to do with what's shown on the commercial.**

**8OO Cookies to the first person who can tell me when Britney Spears' single **_**3 **_**comes out onto iTunes. I'm desperate... yet too lazy to check when ._. I don't like downloading songs for free when they're fresh tracks. Don't ask why. I guess I just don't. **

**"Hey Snowii, how do you put "iSnowX3" into your icons?" AKDSJFALKDS STOP ASKING ME. It's so annoying how every other PM I get is regarding that question. So I put the answer on my profile page. Next person who PMs me with that question shall have their head blown off T_____T**

**Reply time x)**

**insulife: ... To be honest, I don't think I can. I've lived my whole life being hard on myself (I blame the Asian-ness of my family T_T)**

**The Black Stray: **Yepp.

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **I would say it too :)

**darkjewl: **Ah well. I have tons of friends that are born in '97. Close enough anyways :D

**NoraKoneko: **Thank you~

**miruku-chii: ***updates for you*

**Miki-chann: **I'm not exactly the biggest fan of shopping, so when I do (which is like once in every forever), I go for the whole day since there's so much I need to buy ._.

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **You're not a bad person D: I am. I don't review for most of the stories I put on my alerts. I feel so guilty :(

**uh yeah im weird: **Thank you xD

**liledormouse: **Thank you x)

**Wildeh: **Thank you!

**Nyangrl313: **Yes it was.

**.'.Sympho.'.: **Thank you :)

**XSaluri-ChanX: **Thank you ^^

**Myansk: **But that's why we love him, no? :D

**Neji0932: **YES.

**CharacterClover: **That was totally a fail.

**LaharlCrazy1120: **Yes it was :O Don't deny it.

**mombofamily: **Short buddehs! :DD

**snowiisan: **... It's okay?

**Amuto20174: **Exactly ;D

**Angel of Randomosity: **... *dies of sudden emergency*

**bedercat: **And I shall join you xD OMG OMG OMG.

**miserae: **Thank you~

**vampire-fetish15: **Yes yes. I is an evil squirrel.

**Shokara N' Strawberries: **I'm trying I'm trying.

**candyland21: **Bleh to you then. Jkjk x)

**T-chan: **... my God xD

**xMidnightRosex: **Yes they did.

**MysteryPearl: **For some reason, whenever I"m tying out your penname, I always end up tying 'MysterPearl'. Mr. Pearl lol x) I **hated **that episode. Don't ever mention it to me again :o

**MaroonAngel of Darkness: **I knew it. It made no sense :D

**Hinazuki Miu: **Thank you for loving me 8D

**Joker4ever: **Yes it was.

**Soccerluver04: **I update because I"ve got no life outside of this and homework ._. Not joking. Last time I actually visited a friend outside of school for something other than school / projects was back in the beginning of June.

**Kimiko: **Yes I did.

**Dark Midnight Dream: **I like that :O I like that a lot.

**Rin (: : **Pshhhh, the last episode sucked.

**CC Rose: **Well I don't like Tadase either. It just bothers me when someone ends up single and lonely and alive. I mean, if they die in the end, sure. But I don't want anyone living lonely.

**TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi: I KNOW RIGHT?! It's such a depressing book D: But that makes me love it even more :)**

**xhappily-randomx: **Yes they did x)

**KremZen: **... Well _duh_ I'm going to make another chapter :O What'd you expect? I call that the ending?

**MidnightLucifer: **Thank you xD

**Thank you for 25O+ reviews! :D Arigato minna-san~**

**

* * *

**

Amu's eyes were wide. Ikuto kept the kiss soft and chaste, yet enjoyed it all the same.

After a few long moments, the blue haired man finally pulled away, a grin on his face. Amu stared up at him in wonder. It felt good, but also... slightly disgusting.

She playfully glared at him as she wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeve.

"You pervert," She chided, but her eyes had a mocking look to them. Ikuto smirked at her.

"Eh?" He asked as he tried his best to sound extremely shocked. "You're not denying that you enjoyed the kiss?"

Amu stared at him, but then almost instantly turned away.

"What?" She asked stubbornly. "Just because I hate that your perverted, does that mean I have to dislike every other part of you too then?"

Her eyes widened and she slapped her hand over her mouth as soon as she realized what had just come out of her own mouth. The number of ways that Ikuto could interpret that was endless.

The blue haired man's smirk widened.

"So now you're not just saying that you enjoyed the kiss," He teased. "But now you're also saying that you _like _me too?"

Amu shook her head vigorously, cheeks starting to grow red again.

"N-NO!" She stammered loudly. "I'm just saying that I don't _hate _you! That doesn't mean that I _like _you?"

Ikuto grinned. Not being hated was a start. A small one, but it was still a start.

"You don't hate me," He repeated. "But you don't like me. So what _do _you feel about me then?"

Amu hesitated. To be honest, she hadn't really thought about it. She had always just assumed it was somewhere in between love and hate. Not really sure exactly where it was, though.

She shrugged.

"Aruto," She said softly, completely ignoring his question all together. "Were you serious about what you said earlier?"

Ikuto's smile faltered.

"Depends," He said. "Which part of what I said?"

"What you said right before you kissed me," Amu whispered. Ikuto's smile faded all together.

"What would you do if I said no?" He asked. Amu glared at him.

"Stop asking for my opinion before you tell me anything!" She yelled. "It makes me feel like you're only going to say what I want you to or something!"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Fine," He said. "I'll tell you."

He leaned down so that his face was level with her ear. Amu stiffened, cheeks reddening, when she felt his nose poking at her ear and his breathing on her neck.

"I was serious."

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Yaya's face fell as she watched the bird fly higher and higher into the sky. High enough so that it was just another tiny black dot in the endless sky.

Tadase came up from behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"That bird will come back eventually," He assured her, a smile on his face. Yaya stared at him in curiously.

"What makes you so sure?" She asked. "Does Tadase have some magic powers to see the future or something?"

Tadase laughed and shook his head.

"Nope," He said. Yaya frowned.

"Then how does Tadase know?" She demanded, a cute pout forming on her face. Tadase just shrugged.

"Well I don't know how I know," He told her. "I just.. know?"

Yaya just looked at the blonde for a moment longer, then sighed.

"Well Birdie-tan's gone," She said sadly. "I guess we should start heading back to Amu-chi and Aruto-san then."

Tadase nodded.

"Yeah," He agreed. "We don't want to keep them waiting."

Yaya stopped and thought for a moment.

"I wonder how they're getting along right now.." She said sounding like she was more thinking aloud to her self than directing it to Tadase. Tadase looked at her with a confused expression on his face.

"Why wouldn't they get along...?" He asked. Yaya stared at him as if he had just gone mental.

"Why wouldn't they get along." She repeated. "Why wouldn't they get along?! Did you notice _anything _the past couple of weeks? Ikuto teases Amu-chi, and Amu-chi always gets mad at him for it. If it's not teasing, it was something perverted. If it's not something perverted, then it was just something irritating to Amu-chi! How could you have not known?"

An evil-looking smile soon spread across the brown haired girl's face.

"And it's probably more than just 'arguing'..." Yaya continued. "Wouldn't life be so much more interesting if something more happened?"

Tadsae frowned. Now that he thought about it, everything Yaya just said was actually very, very true. He shrugged again.

"Well now I know since you told me," He said. "Now why don't we go back now and check to make sure the two of them haven't killed each other yet?"

Yaya grinned.

"Sure!" She said excitedly, running back in the direction that the two of them came from. Tadase smiled to himself and shook his head in disbelief before taking off after Yaya.

But to be honest, they really didn't have to run. The screaming coming out of a certain pink haired person's mouth could have probably been heard over a mile away.

**(A/N. Well that was a waste of 429 words xD Back to Amu and Ikuto... except right about now is when my brain dies. Sorry D: Also, I did this next part over **_**4+ days**_**. It might be a bit awkward here and there because of that.)**

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Ikuto inwardly slapped himself. He never pictured that this would be the way to let Amu know, but now that he started, there was nothing left to do but keep going and hope for the best.

Time for all the teasing and perverted acts to go away. At least momentarily.

Amu gaped at him.

"Y-You were s-s-serious?!" She stammered. Ikuto nodded. For a moment, Amu was lost in her own little world, but then she quickly recovered herself and jumped backwards a couple of feet.

"You liar!" She yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the blue-haired man standing awkwardly in front of her. "I bet you're just... just... teasing me again!"

Ikuto shook his head, no traces of any teasing on his face anymore. The quite sudden change of mood was actually quite surprising, considering it all happened in a matter of seconds.

"I'm not." He said flatly. "I'm not joking."

Amu's mouth fell open, forming a slight 'o' on her face. Ikuto studied her change of expressions carefully with an intense stare.

He suddenly sighed.

"Why is it so hard to believe?" He asked in a frustrated tone. Amu shrugged.

"I don't know exactly," She replied. "But just something about... maybe it's you saying it? I mean, whenever I imagine you doing something, it's always something perverted or something that bothers me. In case you haven't noticed yet, it's kind of hard for me to imagine a big pervert to be someone capable of actually liking someone."

Ikuto rolled his eyes.

"You do realize that not much of anything you've said recently has made much sense, right?" He asked. "So is what you just said supposed to be complimenting me or insulting me?"

Amu shrugged again.

"Dunno," She said bluntly. "Maybe... both? If you take being an official pervert as a compliment then it's both."

Ikuto opened his mouth to say something back, probably something to annoy Amu, but then he realized something.

"Are you seriously not believing me?" He asked. "Or are you just trying to avoid what I was said earlier?"

Hesitation flickered in the pinkette's eyes.

"I guess... both?" She said in a small voice. Ikuto took a deep breath. He really didn't want to have to go down to doing this.

"Look," He said, trying to make his voice as gentle as possible while forcing the words out of his mouth. "If it's going to bother you this much, then why don't we just forget that I said anything at all?"

Before Amu could give him an answer, the blue haired man turned on his heel and walked away from her.

"Aruto!" Amu called out after him. But Ikuto didn't turn around for even a moment.

"But..." The pink haired girl whispered to no one in particular as she watched Ikuto leaving. "How the hell do you expect me to forget something like _that_?"

"AMU-CHI!"

The girl being spoken... or yelled about warily turned around to see Yaya, skipping joyously towards her with Tadase following not too far behind.

"Amu-chi!" Yaya shouted again. "We're back!!'

Amu only faked a smile and nodded slowly. Yaya's enthusiastic expression slowly faded away.

"Eh... Amu-chi?" She asked, concerned. "What's wrong? And why is Aruto-san walking _wayyyyyy_ over there?"

A small noise escaped Amu's lips, though the pink haired girl wasn't sure of exactly what it was. Something between a sigh and a small whine.

"Yaya," She said quietly. "I don't know know where he's going. But I _do _know that he's getting away from me."

Yaya frowned at her best friend with wide, worried eyes. Amu definitely herself right now, and it was probably because of something about Ikuto.

Her eyes suddenly brightened.

"I know what the matter is!" The brown haired girl exclaimed excitedly. "I bet Amu-chi's just a bit tired. Why don't we go find somewhere to stay? Then we can all go sleep or something and then Amu-chi will feel alll better when she wakes up!"

Doubt flickered in both Tadase and Amu's eyes.

"Eh.. Yaya..." He said, sounding uncomfortable with him being the one to say it. "I don't think that it's quite that simple..."

Yaya whipped around and glared at him.

"Things can be that simple!" She practically yelled. "It's just that _some _people in this world try to make everything more complicated than it needs to be!! Uh... right, Amu-chi?"

Amu blinked rapidly a couple of times, as if she had just been pulled out of a trance.

"Um.." She slowly muttered in a dazed tone. "Yeah. Sure, whatever. But... what about Aruto...?"

Yaya frowned.

"Amu-chiiiii!" She whined. "Stop worrying about other people. What matters most to Yaya is that Amu-chi gets better first! Then we can worry about everyone else together!"

The tiniest smile formed on Amu's face.

"Yeah...." She said, as if trying to convince herself of that while also saying it out loud. "Yeah, Yaya. You're right..."

Yaya's usual cheerful grin was back on her face.

"So then come on!" She cheered the pink haired girl on, tugging on her sleeve. "Let's go then!"

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Amu pulled the covers over her face as she let out a huge sigh, tossing and turning on the small hotel bed once more. After walking for a bit, the three of them had finally found a small hotel not far from the beach. Once getting all of their bags, not including Ikuto's- since he was still no where to be found, into the hotel, Tadase had went out to try to find the blue haired man, but returned an hour later with no such luck.

"Aruto-san will be back soon," Yaya had said comfortingly when Tadase appeared empty-handed.

The pink haired girl turned to her side on the bed again. Ikuto's words were still ringing loud and clear in her mind, the taste of his lips still lingering on hers.

And those two, simple things were what were keeping her from getting a good night's sleep.

_Aruto... when he just __**left **__like that.... he looked like he felt just like I had when Tadase told me that he didn't like me._

Amu's eyes suddenly widened. She hadn't realized until now how similar their experiences were. Tadase had rejected Amu. And Amu had.. well... whatever it is she had done was close enough to rejecting Ikuto.

_Even though I only felt really bad for a little bit afterwards... it'd be kind of mean to make someone else go through the exact same thing. Even worse if they have to go through it for a longer time than I did..._

She turned one last time on the bed.

_Even if Ikuto's such a big, annoying pervert... I guess... I guess.... maybe I _could _give him a chance.... but where the heck is he!?_

Amu finally pushed off all of the covers and sat up on the hotel bed. She wasn't going to be able to sleep; at least not like this. She turned to look at the bed beside hers, smiling slightly when she saw Yaya spread out on the bed, fast asleep. Tadase was in the room next door, but Amu was pretty sure he was sleeping too.

The pink haired girl quietly scrambled off of the bed, walking slowly towards the window. Maybe staring at something different than what she's been staring at for the past couple of hours will fix up her mind.

Just as she pulled the curtains to take a peek outside, her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp. Outside the hotel, down on the ground floor, was the car they had been driving in, looking very lonely as it was one of the only few cars in the parking lot. But standing _outside _the car, was none other than...

Ikuto.

Amu sleepily rubbed her eyes, double-checking her vision to be sure of what she was seeing. After all, it wasn't hard to imagine a person you've been looking for to be standing right in your line of vision.

But her eyes weren't playing a trick on her; Ikuto was really standing there.

The pink haired girl didn't move, waiting to see what the man she was watching would do first before attempting anything that might just make him leave again. He opened one of the car doors, leaning inside. Amu squinted. Even with the the lights inside the car on, the windows were still tainted and it was dark outside, ruining her perfect view of what Ikuto was doing. But she clearly did see him go through one of his bags, pulling out a slender, silver case.

_... What's that?_

Of course, Amu had no idea what it was, considering she had never once even _thought about_ going through Ikuto's things. But that case intrigued her. She had never known of it's existence, for it was so nicely hidden in all of Ikuto's stuff.

As Ikuto picked up the case, slinging a small strap hanging from it over his shoulder. It didn't look very out of place on him, as if that little case was destined to be carried by him like that.

And while Amu was lost in her own little thoughts, Ikuto slammed the car door shut and walked away again. Amu's eyes widened. She quickly ran to the back wall of the hotel room, where her bags were, and grabbed the first articles of clothing she could find. They didn't exactly match, but they would have to do for now.

Amu grabbed a piece of paper and a pen also, quickly scribbling out a note for Yaya and tossing it onto the table next to where the brown haired girl was sleeping. Then, without a second thought, she ran out of the hotel rooms, down the stairs, and out into the cold of the pitch black night.

Ikuto was already gone.

The pink haired girl let out a sigh of frustration. She had come all this way, just to find out that the person she was looking for had already disappeared again.

But she was already out here, might as well make the most of her work.

Taking another deep breath, Amu took off and began looking for Ikuto. It hadn't been too long since she saw him getting that case, so he can't be that far from here.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

**(an hour and a half later)**

Panting, Amu found herself back at the beach that she, Yaya, and Tadase were on earlier. She frowned. This couldn't be right.

Or could it?

But the tune of a soft, sweet song quickly flowed into Amu's mind and interrupted all of her thoughts.

_Now where's that coming from?_

Momentarily distracted from the real reason that she came here, Amu felt her legs slowly carrying her in the direction that the sound was coming from.

Turns out that song was what she had been looking for this whole time.

The pink haired girl's eyes widened when she saw who was playing the song.

Her first thoughts-- Tsukiyomi Ikuto, the famous violinist. But that was impossible, right? Tsukiyomi Ikuto was supposedly on some big tour around Japan. He couldn't be _here _of all places, could he?

But after a closer look, Amu realized that it was Ikuto (Okay that sounded really confusing when I re-read it over, so let me explain-- she thought it was the _famous _Ikuto at first glance, then thought it was _not famous_ Ikuto. Amu watched him skillfully play a violin tucked neatly under his chin, her eyes wide in wonder.

_So it was a _violin_ in that case....._

As quietly as she could, she crept over so that she was standing right behind Ikuto. Amu sat down and took a seat next to him, closing her eyes and enjoying the song.

But it suddenly stopped.

Amu slowly opened her eyes and saw Ikuto, smirking down at her with a half amused, half annoyed expression on his face.

"And you honestly thought I was stupid enough to not notice you followed me here?" He asked jokingly. Amu scrambled up, cheeks turning a light shade of red.

"Did not," She muttered. Ikuto chuckled lightly, but it quickly died away.  
"So seriously," He said. "What are you doing here?"

Amu took a deep breath.

"Well," She said slowly and nervously. "Maybe I reacted pretty badly when you told me that you... um... liked me. Like I sort of acted like Tadase did with me... and... uh... that's not nice. I was just really surprised, that's all. And... um... maybe I... _could _give you chance..."

Ikuto's eyes practically bugged out of their sockets.

"And you were the one who told me that _I _needed to stop joking around..." He murmured to himself. Amu shook her head vigorously.

"But I"m not lying, joking, whatever you want to call it," She announced earnestly. "I'm serious. Even though Tadase wouldn't even give me a chance, that doesn't mean that I should be like that."

Ikuto still didn't look very convinced.

"You're sure?" He asked, checking to see if everything was really happening. It was too good to be true. Amu nodded slightly.

"Yeah..." She whispered as a smile grew on her face. "I'm sure..."

Ikuto's smirk suddenly reappeared on his face. In one swift motion, he had the violin back in it's case and over his shoulder and picked Amu up off of the ground, now holding her tightly in his arms bridal-style.

Amu's cheeks were beyond red now.

"W-What is this for?!" She demanded. Ikuto shook his head sadly.

"What's with the change of thought all of a sudden?" He asked, ignoring her question all together. "First you accuse me of lying, and now you're going to 'give me a chance'?"

Amu shrugged.

"Dunno," She replied. "Maybe I just want to try something new for a change."

Ikuto thought for a moment. Not exactly what he hoped for, but it was close enough. He put his usual smirk back in place.

"Now come on," He said, a twinkle of playfulness in his eyes. "We should get back before Yaya and that other kid notice that you're gone."

Amu frowned.

"I could always walk you know," she pointed out. Ikuto shrugged.

"I know," He said simply, before walking forward, Amu still in his arms. Amu let out a resigned sigh. Might as well let him have a little fun before his perverted side _really _comes back. She curled up in his hold. Strangely, Amu felt... safe... when she was like this. Warm and safe.

After quite a bit of time, Amu finally remembered something.

"Hey Aruto, you never told me you could play the violin!"

Ikuto laughed.

"And that's something I'll tell you about... _later_."

_Much... much later. When I think that you can take finding out who I really am without hating me._

_

* * *

_

***sigh* I are tired. It's 1O:OOPM right now, and I've still got three tests to study for. All of which are tomorrow. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period, so I can't study during my other classes or lunch or something .___. Wish me luck.**

**Review please!**


	10. Miracle

**Am I the only one with a Dum-Dum-Pop obsession in this world? o_o My mom bought a bag for Halloween and I can't seem to stop grabbing the bag and sneaking a couple back to my computer. Especially the strawberry and watermelon ones :)**

**About my new icon-- I got the idea from my cousin x) She used to be on a Dragon Boat Racing team, and she had this cute little cardboard sign that said "Will paddle for food." I can't paddle, but I **_**can **_**write xD**

**Episode 1O3 was **_**beyond**_** epic fail. It was pig disgusting. It was everything negative in this world. I mean, half the ****anime**** isn't even **_**anime**_** anymore. It's three people dressed up in Chara-nari outfits making total fools of themselves.**

**I know writing for SC means that you're a fan of SC, but I'm proud to say that that was the most horrible thing I've seen in a long time. Long **_**long **_**time.**

**I'm getting a new phone for Christmas!!!! :D Well, since my plan ends in mid-December anyways, might as well get a new phone then x) I've got Verizon, so any suggestions?**

**Chapter 45 was... eh, I'm not going to say anything. It wasn't **_**bad**_**, as in as bad as the anime is right now, but it's not **_**great **_**either. As of now, nothing beats those couple chapters of Ikuto-ness :3**

**Repliessss--**

**Shokara N' Strawberries: **Thank you :)

**vampire-fetish15: **Eh... I got a F on one quiz, a D on another, and I have yet to get the last one back :\ Though I think I didn't do _too _bad on that one...

**Neji0932: **Ahahah I surprised you x)

**The Black Stray: **Well Amu is known for her.... dense-ness. So it would seem natural, neh?

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **LOL If I was there I would've probably cracked up too :D

**liledormouse: **Thank you :D

**MysteryPearl: **I blame my my stupid laptop.. otherwise known as Mr. Dinosaur. He's a hand-me-down from my dad, and since this thing was probably made in the beginning of time, a lot of the keys are really insensitive now :( *sigh* I'm hoping for a new laptop for Christmas... maybe a pink one xD

**miserae: **Honto honto kawaii :)

**Joker4ever: **Oh but I didn't.

**Miki-chann: **Thank you!

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **You better love it :) It took me four days to think of that idea.

**LaharlCrazy1120: **No offense, but offense taken :D

**bendercat: **It's fine :) I read FF at school a lot. Since my school is just across the street from my house, the WiFi at my house reaches my school 8D iTouches ftw.

**Snowiisan: **Thank you :D And I was looking on your profile page and realized that you're the same age as my brother.... o_o And he's so much more immature than you

**Myansk: **Okay so first she thought it was Tsukiyomi Ikuto as in the famous violinist. Then she thought it was Ikuto as in the guy that she and Yaya pulled off the street.

**mombofamily: **I've learned to just accept the fact that I'm probably going to be short for life :)

**candyland21: **Ew. I hate miles :\ I'm not a running person. More of a sprinter :)

**ClouD: **I have no idea.

**xhappily-randomx: **Thank you's x)

**KremZen: **Now why would I judge you hm?

**Soccerluver04: That, my friend, is when you randomly pound on the computer keyboard. And** I doubt that that story will ever get finished. Might just delete it sooner or later.

**.'.Sympho.'.: Yepp. Loving Itazura Na Kiss :3**

**Hinazuki Miu: **Woohooooo~ 1O more points for me x)

**Dark Midnight Dream: **Just keep reading then :)

**Tchabita A.: **Hey Alex ^^ Aw... I know how that's like ._. Now I just use the same password for everything. That way there's absolutely no way for me to forget :) Anyways, thanks for catching that mistake of mine. I'll be sure to fix that... that is when I have the patience to go and find that x)

**Demon Cello Lilin: **:D Nice to know someone that shares the same obsession as me~

**Angel of Randomnosity: **You sound a bit hyper...

**gina3739: **Thanks :) But I kind of do the same thing a lot too... beg for reviews, yet I never really review much myself. I've been trying to but I can never get the hang of reviewing all the time. And you're not the only one who wants that, I have a certain friend of mine who has been a total bitch the past week. Well, obviously, Yaya did pack some clothes. Just I didn't write it :) Of course, Santa has to be rich :O How else could he afford to pay his elves and get us all presents?

**Tchabita A.: **Yeah.. I probably meant convincing. Yes yes, go ahead and be a grammar and spelling Nazi and point out every single one of my mistakes D: jkjk Thanks for telling me, though I doubt that I'l ever go back and fix them.

**Tchabita A.: **Well I hate my school too. Too much stress. Why do you hate Yaya? :(

**Tchabita A.: **... Tadase is _not_ gay. How many times must I say this? Vampire Knight is _awesome_. I was just rewatching Guilty the other day too :)

**Tchabita A.: **Ran is my favorite out of all of Amu's chara's because she's..... pink. I love the color pink. If you me pick out of all the chara's, then it would be Yoru, Kusu-Kusu, Iru, and dark Dia :) Nope, I always wear Converse, and I don't wear shoes at all in my house since it's carpeted.

**Tchabita A.: O_O GO WATCH DEATH NOTE. NOW. It is one of **_**the**_** best anime's. Ever. I got the wallpapers form Simplicity, which is a wordpress blog known for it's Amuto-shipping :) Extra large hq pics of the hug ftw. Ah well, I'm only 13, so yes, you're older than me. I don't like Miki because.. well.. I'm not the biggest fan of her personality. Don't ask. I don't really have any opinions on Nagihiko... don't hate him, don't like him, can't live without his existence.**

**Tchabita A: **.... No. Why would I be mad at him? I've got no reason to be :) But my _ex_ on the other hand, yeah he should just go to hell. Now. I'm actually hoping he does notice this, even though he doesn't know anything about my FF. It would do him some good to know how much is idiotic personality is ruining my life. He's not going to come back. Even if he does, I'm not taking him back in. He knows he's a jerk, and all he does is rub it in my face that (according to some really trust-worthy friends of mine), he's already found someone else.

**Tchabita A.: **I swear. I'm on the verge of boycotting _Shugo Chara! Party!_. Pucchi Pucchi should just go to hell. It's kind of just another filler technique of Peach-Pit's. Not working out, just for the record. Rikka's cute, but she's kind of a bit on the stupid side.

**Miruku-chii: **I know right? D: Such a fail.

**NerdHerd01: **Thank you!

**Thank you so, so, so much for the 3OO+ reviews! It means so much to me :)**

**R E A D - T H I S - P A R T :**

**So I was listening to **_**a lot**_** of AOL radio and youtube this weekend, something I haven't done in a **_**long **_**time, and I found lots of songs that I wanted. Now as you should know, the fact that I'm extremely lazy and most of my free time is crunched up writing this story, I don't have much time / money / patience to go out and download / buy all the songs that I want. I put them all in a list, and if any of you guys just happen to have a couple of these songs on hand, could you send them to me? You'll get a huge thank you and a couple of cookies next chapter's authors notes if you do :D**

**Here's the list --**

**http:// docs. google. com/ View?id=dfbd2d5q_3znthzfmm**

**Email's on my profile page.**

**

* * *

**

**- Four Days Later -**

"Eh...? Amu-chi!" Yaya shouted, waving them towards the wall of a building. "Come look at this!"

The group had continued on traveling around, stopping at a rather large town for a few days.

Amu, laughing slightly, quickly caught up to the excited girl with Ikuto falling closely beside her. On the wall that her best friend was frantically pointing too was a rather large poster. Some advertisement about a concert about the oh so famous Tsukiyomi Ikuto.

A concert that just so happened to be taking place tonight.

"So, Amu-chi," Yaya continued excitedly. "Can we go? It's only going to be for tonight after all!"

Ikuto fought back a smile that was twitching on his lips. Of course, _he _wouldn't be complaining if Yaya got them all to go to that concert. After all, he would always be able to find some way to sneak back stage and have a little chat with a good friend of his.

Unfortunately for him though, Amu glared at the poster and shook his head.

"Yaya..." She began in an exasperated tone. "How many times have I told you that _I hate Tsukiyomi Ikuto_?"

Yaya frowned, attempting to count all the times mentally.

"Countless times, no?" Amu continued without receiving an answer from her good friend. "I've said it so many times that it should be second nature to know how much I hate him. And now you're asking me to help him earn money by wasting a couple hours of my life listening to his music?!"

Yaya took a step back. She wasn't used to having Amu feel so hateful of another person, since Amu wasn't normally one to hold grudges.

"Well I," Ikuto suddenly cut in. "Think that we should go."

Amu looked at him as if he had just admitted that he was secretly a girl.

"You." She repeated. "Want to go?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"I don't see why not," He said. "I mean, he plays the violin, and he doesn't play that bad either."

Amu glared at him.

"And to think that the guy who _pressured _me into going out with him," She muttered under her breath. "That very same guy is now doing everything that he obviously knows pisses me off..."

Unfortunately, Ikuto heard that. He smirked at the girl standing in front of him.

"Who said I _"pressured" _you into it?" He asked teasingly. Amu's glare only hardened.

"Excuse me?!" She practically yelled. "You were the one acting all pissed when I didn't say anything when you told me you liked me!"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"That doesn't mean I pressured you," He pointed out. Amu let out a sigh of frustration.

"But I felt all bad about how I reacted," She told him. Ikuto's smile quickly faded.

"So you're going out with me out of guilt?" He asked flatly. Amu's eyes widened as she shook her head vigorously.

"Nonono," She exclaimed quickly. "Well... okay at first it was."

Ikuto's dark mood didn't lighten up.

"How about now?" He continued, his voice toneless. Amu thought for a moment.

"Uh..." She trailed off as she racked her brain for something. "Maybe it's more... that I _want _to... rather than guilt...?"

So maybe that wasn't true. But it was the first thing that came to Amu's desperate mind, so she just settled with that.

Not like such a little, innocent, white lie could hurt anyone right?

Ikuto seemed satisfied with that answer. Another grin broke out on his face again.

"Glad to hear it," He said, sounding rather more cheerful than a few seconds ago.

"Enough of you two arguing!" Yaya suddenly cut in, sounding quite irritated. "So are we going to this concert or not?!"

"No." Amu said firmly the same time Ikuto let out a, "Yes."

... And then they were back where they started.

"Seriously," Ikuto told the pink-haired girl. "I bet you've never even heard any of his music before, have you?"

Amu quickly spun so that she was facing the opposite direction, her nose in the air as she let out a small 'hmph!'. Ikuto smirked.

"I knew it."

And within milliseconds, the pink haired girl whipped back around, glare more irritated-looking than ever.

"So what if I haven't?" She demanded. "I don't need to hear his 'music' to know that he his completely selfish and obsessed with himself."

Ikuto merely rolled his eyes.

"Anyways," Amu continued. "We don't know whether _Tadase _wants to go either or not. Do you?"

Ikuto's smile wavered.

"Uh.. well..." He trailed off. Amu smiled.

"Thought so," She said smugly.

"Ano...." Tadase, who had been standing back and silently observing the whole argument, said. "Hinamori-san, gomene, but I kind of want to go to that concert too..."

Amu's smile quickly disappeared. She glared at all of them.

"Well fine!" She said rather unhappily. "Just don't expect me to enjoy a single moment of it."

Ikuto only grinned victoriously.

**- After the Concert -**

Ikuto blinked a couple times as the light in the concert hall came back on. Hes eyes weren't used to the sudden change from a dark building to the sudden bright light.

But it didn't seem to affect Amu.

Smiling, Ikuto shifted his position on the seat to look at her. The pink haired girl was sitting next to him with her head resting on his shoulder, fast asleep. Ikuto smirked.

"Hey, Amu..." He whispered as he poked her arm gently. "Wake up..."

Amu slapped his hand away.

"I told you this was really boring," She mumbled, slowly sitting up. She let out a huge yawn and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Ikuto's smirk widened.

"Well now you've proven your point," He said, extending an arm to help her up. Amu pointedly ignored it and stood up on her own.

"Now can we go?" She asked impatiently. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible. The less time in a room filled with Tsukiyomi Ikuto-fanatics, the better."

The mention of his name suddenly made Ikuto remember something. The real reason to why he wanted to come here so badly.

The blue haired man suddenly turned around and walked away from Amu.

"I'm going to the bathroom," He called over his shoulder as he continued to walk. Amu frowned in confusion.

"But Aruto..." She said, more to herself than to him. "The bathroom's _that _way."

She pointed in the direction _opposite _of where Ikuto was walking. Unfortunately, Ikuto didn't hear her. Amu's frown deepened.

_Maybe... it wouldn't hurt to follow him a bit, would it...?_

She shrugged. There was no reason not to, considering Ikuto was the one who hid in a bush and listened to her whole confession to Tadase. The pink haired girl took a few slow steps forward, careful not to make a single noise so Ikuto wouldn't notice her.

Ikuto didn't realize a thing. He pulled his hood over his head and continued walking, completely oblivious to the girl following him from some ways behind. He kept doing so until he had went all the way around to the back entrance and silently slipped inside. Amu's confusion on grew.

_Now what did he need that would be in there..._

She felt disgusted. Amu wasn't stupid; she knew that backstage was probably where "Tsukiyomi Ikuto" was right now, and on a normal day, she would've paid good money to get _away _from him.

But today wasn't just another ordinary day, was it?

Still extremely cautious about any noises she made, she quietly followed him in.

Ikuto continued walking around aimlessly until, at last, he found the person he was looking for. Yoru was in a room, completely empty of other people, leaning against a wall and looking beyond incredibly bored. His head instinctively looked up as he heard Ikuto come in, but smirked when he recognized who it was.

"What?" He asked jokingly. "You finally came back to beg for your job back?"

Ikuto rolled his eyes.

"Yes," He said sarcastically. "I'm begging you to give me my famous life back to me. I hate being non-famous."

Both he and Yoru laughed together.

Amu scowled. She couldn't hear anything from her hiding spot behind a decorative plant in the far corner of the room. The large plant was too far from the two men to hear anything but their occasional laughing. She sighed.

_This place needs more plants..._

But one thing she did know was that Ikuto and Yoru seemed to be getting along really well, and that they looked _extremely _alike. Another thing she knew was that it was irritating her to a big extent.

"So," Yoru said. "Seriously. If you're not here to take your job back, then why are you here?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Not sure," He replied. "But I guess you could say that the people I was travelling with decided to come to the concert."

"So you're not going back to your job for a while now aren't you?" Yoru asked. Ikuto smirked and shook his head.

"Nope," He said proudly. "I got myself a girlfriend."  
Yoru laughed.

"And you were the one telling me not to go out with anybody so you won't have to deal with it later," He joked, recalling those first couple weeks when they met. Ikuto grinned.

Amu was practically seething with anger in her little plant hideout as she glared at the two men talking and joking with each other. That famous violinist idiot was messing around, once again, like he was the greatest person on Earth.

Perfect timing for her phone to go off.

"Shit..." Amu muttered as the familiar tune played from the small phone jammed into her pocket. She had forgotten to turn it off before following Ikuto here, and now those two had to be completely morons to not realize someone was in that plant.

And they did notice.

Yoru perked up when he heard the noise.

"Hey, did someone follow you here?" He asked. Ikuto stared at him with a blank face as he shook his head.

"Not that I know of..." He said slowly. "But I think it's coming from over there."

He jerked his thumb in the direction of the plant. Amu's eyes widened as the two of them started toward her hiding spot.

_Damn... damn damn damn damn it!_

The pink haired girl could only watch in horror as she watched Ikuto's hands carefully dragged the plant's pot off to one side. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't look very surprised as he noticed who it was that was hiding.

"Amu?" He asked boredly. "And what are _you_ doing here?"

Amu glared at him.

"I could ask you the same thing," She snapped.

"Wait," Yoru asked Ikuto. "So you know each other, don't you?" Ikuto nodded. Amu glared at him.

"Aruto," She whined. "Why are you talking to _him_?"

"'Aruto'..." Yoru snickered under his breath, only loud enough for the man standing next to him to hear. "What a nice name to pick for yourself... it even rhymes with your old one."

Ikuto elbowed him.

"Why?" He asked Amu, who was looking extremely confused at this point. "It's wrong to talk to him?"

Amu frowned at him.

"You know that in my world," She told him stubbornly. "That yes, it's very wrong."

Ikuto sighed. No matter how many times he tried to shove it in his brain to worry about some point later in life, he couldn't help but remember Amu's hatred for "Tsukiyomi Ikuto." He would also remember how he had _a lot_ of work to do if he wanted to change her mind about that.

Ikuto extended an arm to reach out and ruffle Amu's bubble-gum pink hair.

"Amu," He said, sounding as if he was extremely disappointed in her. "You know that's not true."

Amu stared at him, eyes wide.

"But I know it's true," She said innocently. "It's very true."

Yoru looked very confused.

"Wait so you hate me?" He asked. "Then why are you here?"

Amu plastered a completely fake smile on her face.

"What are you talking about?" She replied brightly. "I don't _hate you_."

"I just wish you're personality died..." She muttered quietly afterwards. Yoru ddin't hear her, but Ikuto did. He sent a sharp glare in her direction.

"Anyways," Amu continued. "I'm here because _he_ is."

She pointed a finger in Ikuto's direction. Yoru's confused face turned into a look of understanding.

"I get it now!" He said, turning to Ikuto. "So she's you're little girlfriend isn't she?"

Ikuto only nodded. Amu stared at the two of them, shifting her focus between each of the two occasionally.

"Hey...." She said softly. "Why do you two look so alike? It's like... you're twins or something... only with like, different... well I don't know exactly what it is."

Both Ikuto and Yoru froze.

"Um..." Ikuto muttered, racking his brains for a reasonable answer.

"Well... it's a long story... sort of..." Yoru mumbled, doing the same thing as his look-a-like. Amu frowned as the moments ticked by and she _still _didn't get an answer.

"Hurry up," She snapped impatiently.

"Uh... we're cousins!" Both Yoru and Ikuto lied at the same time.

_Well... that was convenient...._

Amu raised an eyebrow.

"Cousins?" She repeated. Ikuto nodded.

"Yeah..." He said slowly, inwardly slapping himself. The blue haired man knew that he would have to lie to Amu about who he really was, but he never expected that his little lie would go this far.

One thing was for sure. If Amu was ever going to find out that he was Ikuto, he'd have _a lot_ of explaining and apologizing to do.

Amu still didn't look very convinced.

"That's not that long of a story," She said accusingly to Yoru. "It's only... two words long! 'we're' and 'cousins'. That's not very long."

"Uhm," Ikuto suddenly cut in, trying to save his somewhat identical twin's ass. "I didn't really want to tell you, since... well... you know why."

Amu nodded silently. Even if she truthfully really did hate the famous violinist, she still had a bit of common courtesy in her. She wasn't going to openly say it, especially if the man being talked about was within a few feet of her.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

**(*inserts some sort of conversation here*)**

"Oh really?" Amu asked, sounding genuinely interested. "That's so neat!"

Yoru smiled politely at her. He opened his mouth to say something else to her, but a loud knocking on the door interrupted him.

"Ikuto-san?" He asked. "You in here?"

Without waiting for a reply, he opened the door. It was Ikuto's manager. His eyes widened when he saw both the real and the fake Ikuto in the same room.

"This is my cousin, Aruto" Yoru said, pretending to introduce Ikuto to... Ikuto's manager.. for the first time. The manager smiled, playing along with the hoax.

"Nice to meet you, Aruto-kun," He said politely. Ikuto smirked.

"Nice to meet you too," He said, doing the best he could to hold in his laughter. He suddenly grabbed Amu, pulling her closer to him as he stood up straight.

"Well then," He said, guiding the little pink-haired girl out of the room. "Amu and I should be getting back now."

Yoru smirked, nodding in understanding.

"It was nice talking to you," Amu called politely over her shoulder as she and Ikuto walked out of the room. Once the two of them were safely out of the performance building, Ikuto let go of Amu.

"Well," He said teasingly. "I have to say that I'm a bit surprised. You didn't say one hateful thing to my cousin that whole time."

Amu shrugged.

"After talking to him a bit," She told him. "I don't really think that he's that bad of a person."

Ikuto stopped in his tracks.

"So a simple talk with a guy you hate made you stop hating him?" He asked incredelously. Amu shrugged once more.

"Not sure," She said. "I mean, I still think his ego's too big for his own good, but he's not really all that selfish and stupid like I thought he was."

Ikuto was amazed. All this time he was trying to get Amu to stop hating on the famous version of him, and yet it almost happened without him even lifting a finger.

Almost. Ikuto still had a bit of work to do on that himself.

"So you're going to stop saying evil things about him?" He asked, just trying to keep a decent conversation going. Amu blinked.

"Well duh," She said. "I mean, he's your _cousin_. If you had told me that earlier, I would've totally stopped a while ago."

Ikuto frowned.

_Well I didn't tell you because it's not even true._

But he didn't dare say that aloud.

"AMU-CHI!"

Both Amu and Ikuto flinched when they heard the familiar piercing shriek. In front of them, they saw Yaya, once again running towards them at lightning speed.

"Amu-chi!!" Yaya exclaimed again, giving her favorite person a giant hug. "Where were you? Yaya was so worried!"

Amu twitched visibly.

"Yaya..." She said slowly. "You can let go now."

Yaya shook her head.

"Yaya doesn't want to let go," She told her friend stubbornly. Amu let out a resigned sigh.

Tadase finally caught up with the brown haired girl.

"Yaya," He panted. "You have to stop running so fast."

Yaya stared at him.

"How many times does Yaya have to say this?" She said impatiently. "_Yaya was very worried about Amu-chi_."

Amu was finally able to pry herself out of Yaya's crushing hug.

"Okay," She said. "The concert's now over and done with. Now what?"

Tadase looked a bit embarased.

"Actually, Hinamori-san," He said matter-a-factly. "Yaya and I found a hotel. But there's a problem. There was only one available room, with two beds in it. So we're going to have to share."

Amu looked completely calm.

"Oh," She said. "I'll just share with Yaya or something then."

Yaya opened her mouth to protest, but quickly shut it. In her mind was brewing a beautiful plan.

Unfortunately, Ikuto noticed that strange look that Yaya had on, one that clearly showed that she was planning something.

_I wonder what she's thinking about..._

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Yaya sat in the bed, arms folded tightly over her chest. She kept sneaking glances at the sleeping pink haired girl next to her, while also watching Tadase and Ikuto walk around boredly in their hotel room.

A small, but still noticeable snore coming from Amu signaled to Yaya that her friend was finally deep asleep. She hopped out of the bed, careful not to wake up the person beside her, and silently crept towards Ikuto.

"Aruto," She hissed. "You're sleeping with Amu tonight."

Ikuto's eyes widened, slightly taken aback. Sure, being ordered to do something like that was his dream, but still. Coming from someone like Yaya, it was a bit.... weird.

"Um..." He said slowly, his mind racing with all the ways Amu could kill him when they woke up the next morning. Yaya glared at him.

"No 'ummmm'," She said stubbornly. "There is no way I'm going to be on that bed."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow at her.

"But you two are almost best friends," He pointed out. "I thought it was like... totally normal for girls to do that during sleepovers and stuff."

Yaya shook her head.

"It is," She explained. "But it's just that Amu-chi moves around _so much _in her sleep! It bothers me!"

Ikuto sighed.

"So you're oging to make me sleep there instead?" He asked tonelessly. Yaya grinned and nodded.

"See, it won't be a problem for Aruto-san," She announced. "Since I can tell he's been wanting to do it anyways."

Tadase suddenly stopped what he was doing. He stared at Yaya and Ikuto, wide-eyed.

"Is that true?" He asked, sounding extremely weirded out. Ikuto shook his head.

"Never," He denied firmly, even though inside he was celebrating with joy.

But he wasn't about to let everyone else know how he thought.

"Well Yaya," He said, pretending to sound extremely hesitant about the whole thing. "If you insist..."

Without another word, he climbed into bed. Almost immediately, Amu rolled over on the bed, one arm thrown over Ikuto's waist. He smirked.

_Oh, this is going to be so much fun...._

_

* * *

_

***shakes head in dissapointment* The ending was so rushed. Don't blame me D: I totally failed all those tests I talked about last chapter, and now I've got a quiz tomorrow, a test Wednesday, and a project due Friday.**

**Wish me luck. I'll seriously need it this time. I really need to pull my grades up, since I've been BSing every class this year. Can you believe that it's even possible to get a C- in PE?! :D LOL that's what I have. So I should get practicing my dance routine for that too.**

**Don't forget to review :D**


	11. No Way

**School sucks. My teacher makes everything way more stressful than it needs to be, and my lack of interest in the class she teaches doesn't help much either.**

**ANYWAYS, I've started making vectors on Photoshop, and it is so much fun ! Even though I haven't even finished one yet… ah well. When I finish it, I'll be sure to upload it somewhere. Probably on my TUMBLR or DeviantArt or something…**

**Added another choice to the poll on my profile page :) Be sure to vote if you haven't already. Personally, I like the title of it the most. "Summer Butterflies". Pretty catchy :D But the actually story… I'm not so sure ._.**

**Reply time--**

**miserae: **Yepp.

**Soccerluver04: **... I haven't said anything about deleting it in a while though... I love amutoness...ness :D

**Snowrosex3: **lol whatever happened to you saying that you won't review anymore? :) This story's practically AU, of course Amu's going to be OOC once in a while. But maybe I _was_ daydreaming a bit...

**Snowiisan: **Thank you :D

**vampire-fetish15: **I don't even take chemistry :) Tiny little junior high student ftw.

**Demon Cello Lilin: **O_O OMG. I LOVEEEEE 2NE1. I especially love Bom and Dara, the two that get the least spotlight. CL's a bit overrated, and Minji makes me look so unaccomplished since she's so young. I'm like, two years younger than her, and look what I've done so far with my life. It's shameful.

**.'.Sympho.'.: **I'm not that big of a fan of running. I'm one of those people who sprints facking fast for the first ten seconds and then becomes facking slow x)

**Angel of Randomnosity: **The only times when I actually bother to log in are when I upload a new chapter. Other than that I mostly just go anonymous. I read your story, left a review too x3

**darkjewl: **Eh, I don't really trust limewire :\ Gave me a couple of trojans last time I tried it. But I PMed you my email, so I shall be awaiting that song ;D

**shakugan_charaXD: **I know right? D: Pucchi pucchi? What type of crap is that?!

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **My school is known for it's mass Asianness, our high school even made it onto the news once because of it.

**Miruku-chii: **Of course I'll update :O

**liledormouse: ***Translation--* "This chapter was way too horrible for me to compliment on in any way, so I'll just chat with you about your author's notes instead." jkjk! But that chapter was pretty bad. Well, I get a C- in PE xD Dance is just another unit we have to cover, I'll be out and done with that hellhole by Thanksgiving break.

**A-shadow-of-a-doubt: **I don't like Dia. But Yukari and Nikaidou really need to get back together D: They're one of my most favorite couples.

**Myansk: **Oh really? :) I felt the whole chapter was rushed.

**LaharlCrazy1120: **Oh yes it was.

**iipinkex3: **Thank you :D

**cookie0monsta: ***watches Amu blow up* o___o uh oh...

**xhappily-randomx: **... Would you like to bet on that? :D 'Cuz I'm pretty sure that that's one bet that I'd win hands down.

**Dark Midnight Dream: **No for us not only do you have to "show effort", but you also have to do everything "perfectly and professionally." When they told me that, I was all WTF, since those two are complete opposites.

**ClouD: **Oh, but I have no life :)

**Ruiko: **Most of the time I'm too lazy to log in also :D

**Maroon Angel of Darkness: **Ehehhe :)

**KremZen: **HIGH FIVE! :D PE fail ftw~

**Kuro Neko no Serenade: **..."Hannah Montana"? I wouldn't really know, considering I've never watched a full episode of that in my whole life. But I can kind of see what you were saying, and I swear to god my idea _did not come from there_. As I pointed out in the first chapter, I got the idea from a _Korean phone commercial_... which had nothing to do with Hannah Montana, just for the record. Well actually, I guess the reason this story isn't as good as the others is because 1.) I had more time during the other stories, and 2.) I'm not really "loving" this story. I kind of just want to finish this and be done with it :\ Oh, and happy early birthday!

**Joker4ever: **Too late :) Failed.

**Shokara N' Strawberries: **Thank you x)

**MangaFanXD: **Eh... I don't like cotton candy :\ Guess I'm just not that big of fan of that fluffy feeling of it. The anime sucks ass. The manga is a _tiny _bit better, but until Ikuto comes back I'm going to say that it sucks as well.

**mombofamily: **... I drink three cups of milk a day, just finished one a few moments ago. It doesn't help you grow taller. It makes your chest bigger though :) Even though, for me, that's not really working out either...

**XSaluri-ChanX: **Thank you!

**Monster Mads: **Ahahahah; I do the same thing. Bed-time's 12:30 AM, I stay up until 2AM on my iTouch x)

**MysteryPearl: **Aw D: Hope it get's fixed !

**candyland21: **Ew. I hate miles :\

**xMirrorImagex: **Hm... that's pretty close :)

**mysteriousblackcat: **Well, because for "_For His Sake_", I focused mainly on getting out one chapter per day. I wanted to get the whole thing done before my big vacation, which I didn't succeed in ._. But anyways, I was already busy with Spanish classes, Piano competitions, and fanfiction, so it was already hard for me to finish writing the actual chapter, let alone reply to reviews and personalize my author's notes.

**Hinazuki Miu: **20 Points for me :)

**Steph: **... I have no idea o-o

**TsukiyoimAlikutoMissaWatusi: **I is missing my airport scene D:

**ROCKINtheseLIPSmyBOYZ: **Um... okay....

**ily1910: **O_O Must get cookie...

**WolfCheeto: **Hehe it's not even a book, but oh well :)

**KittyPrincessKirara: **I'm trying, I'm trying.

**dittoeevee8888: **o_o Oops... Ah well. Too lazy to fix my completely lame spelling mistakes :)

* * *

**~The Next Day~**

Amu sighed and rolled over in her sleep. Her eyes still closed, she smiled as she felt the warm figure laying next to her.

"Tadase-kun..." She whispered softly.

"Hate to break it to you," A deep voice suddenly said, interrupting her sweet dreams. "But you're talking about the wrong guy."

Amu's eyes immediately snapped open, and she sat up straight on the bed.

"What?" She asked. Almost as if she didn't want to, Amu turned her head to see who really _was_ next to her. Her already wide, honeycomb eyes widened further.

"A…A-ARUTO?!" She screamed. Ikuto sat up next to her, yawning hugely as he nodded.

"The one and only," He said, smirking at her. Amu flushed, glaring at him.

"B-but… "She stammered. "What... who… WHY ARE YOU HERE?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Well you didn't expect me to sleep on the floor, did you?" He asked sarcastically. Amu narrowed her eyes at him.

"Actually, yes," She replied in a hard tone. Ikuto held back a low chuckle.

"Ah," He corrected her, a wide smirk still on his face. "But from the looks of your face, it almost looks like you enjoyed it."

Amu opened her mouth to protest against that, but quickly closed it after deciding otherwise.

_Well that's because I thought the whole time that it was Tadase-kun… but _no_. It had to be _this_ stupid idiotic jerk…_

"I did not…" She finally mumbled stubbornly.

Ikuto raised an eyebrow, almost as if he was reading her thoughts.

"Now, Amu," He said calmly. "I would've thought they taught you this back in preschool. It is very wrong to lie, so you should always tell the truth."

He frowned as he said the last part.

_I shouldn't even be talking, should I? I'm the one who shouldn't be lying._

Amu only sighed as she untangled herself from the bed's sheets and climbed out. Ikuto followed right after her. He was about to follow in just as Amu was slipping into the bathroom, but the pink haired girl suddenly whipped around.

"No." She said in a stern, firm tone, and slammed the door on him. Still staring at the closed door in front of his face, Ikuto shrugged.

_At least I tried._

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Amu raised an eyebrow as she stood in front of the miles of gated land.

"So today," She said, more to herself than anyone around her. "We're going to an amusement park."

Beside her, Yaya nodded excitedly.

"Yeah!" She yelled in an enthusiastic tone. "Yaya saw a poster for it yesterday after Tsukiyomi's concert. Pretty neat, eh?"

Amu bit her lip, casting her gaze downwards. She had long since outgrown amusement parks, ever since her parents had made her give up the rides she loved to take Amu, her little sister, on the rides that _she_ wanted to ride on. Amu wasn't sure if she knew how to have fun at a place like this anymore. She didn't even know if she knew what her favorite rides were even anymore.

Ikuto glanced at her once, and immediately noticed her down expression. He walked over to her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You know," He said. "If you don't want to go, then I could go with you to… somewhere else. I guess."

Amu looked up at him, and shook her head.

"No," She disagreed. "It's fine. Let's all just stay here."

But her eyes told a different story. Ikuto frowned. It was more than obvious to him that Amu was lying to everyone, even herself.

"Um… Okay…" Ikuto said slowly, sounding extremely unconvinced.

_Guess I'll just have to wait and see…_

Amu forced a smile on her face. Ikuto was staring at her in a weird way, and she didn't want him to suspect anything of her.

"Come on!" She exclaimed, reaching for Yaya's hand. "We've got an amusement park, a whole day with nothing else planned to do, and the four of us together. So let's go!"

Yaya needed no more encouraging. She immediately took off after Amu, the two of them dashing into the park at full speed.

That left Tadase and Ikuto, standing awkwardly at the entrance.

"Is it just me," Tadase suddenly asked. "Or was that _really_ unexpected of Hinamori-san?"

Ikuto's frown deepened as he stared after Amu and her little friend.

"I couldn't have put it better myself," He muttered quietly to himself.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Come on!" Yaya exclaimed, pointing to five rides simultaneously. "Let's go on this one!"

Standing behind her, Tadase let out a laugh.

"Which one?" He asked good-naturedly. Yaya stared at him disbelievingly.

"All of them, of course, you baka!" She said loudly.

"Yaya…" Amu told her friend. "I think he means which one _first_."

Yaya's eyes widened in understanding.

"Ooohh," She trailed off. "I get it now. Well let's go on that one then!"  
She pointed to a small teacup ride. There were a few children with their parents waiting in line, but it was mostly teenage couples, wanting a few minutes alone together in a giant cup.

Without waiting for an answer or agreement from anyone else, Yaya turned to the sign in front of the ride.

"Small children must ride with an adult or chaperone," She read aloud to herself. " No climbing or standing in the teacup while it's in motion… no food or drinks on the ride… only two people per teacup-"

"Then I'm with Aruto!" Amu announced, grabbing Ikuto's arm in her two small hands. Ikuto, as much as he had always wanted this, looked mildly shocked at her bold action.

"Um… okay?" His reply sounded more like a question. Yaya and Tadase glanced at each other for a brief moment. Tadase shrugged, and Yaya just smiled.

"Perfect!" She said, as they walked towards the line. "So you two, go find a teacup to sit in together, then. I'll go with Tadase."

The line went by fairly quickly; Yaya's enthusiastic and talktative personality made sure of that. Before Amu knew it, she was following Ikuto around, looking for a suitable teacup.

"How about this one?" Ikuto asked, stopping in front of one of the teacups. It was a pale yellow color, with a pink and orange design flying across it.

Amu only nodded her head, slowly climbing into the ride. Ikuto eyed her suspiciously the whole time.

"What's the matter?" He asked, looking as if he wasn't going down without an answer. "The whole time we've been here you look like you've seen a ghost or something."

Amu only stared at him disbelievingly. Ikuto took her silence as an agreement.  
"So I was right?" He asked incredulously. "You _did_ see a ghost?!"  
Amu laughed.

"No," She said. "It's just that… I've never been on one of these before…"

Ikuto's eyes were wide with amazement.

"You've never been on a teacup ride before," He repeated. "Come on! I mean, _everyone_'s been on one at least once before."

Amu shook her head.

"No," She said softly. "I mean, my parents always made me take my sister onto the rides that she wanted to ride, and she didn't like the teacup. It always made her feel sick. So, I never got to ride this…"

Ikuto still found the whole thing pretty hard to believe, he nodded.

"Okay," He explained. "So basically, you just sit like you are now, and then you turn this thing."

He placed his hand on the wheel in the middle of the teacup. Amu followed, putting her hands next to Ikuto's and holding the wheel the same way he was.

"The faster you turn this," Ikuto continued. "The faster the teacup spins. So how fast do you want it to go?"

Amu smiled.

"As fast as it can go," She answered. Ikuto smirked back at her.

"Okay then," He told her. "Just don't fly out of the teacup."

Amu's smile widened just as the ride as starting up.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Amu let out a small scream as the ride came to a halting stop. They were going so fast that when the ride ended she had actually slid onto Ikuto's lap. Ikuto grinned as he picked her up so that he could also stand up.

"Aruto…" Amu mumbled, still giggling with a huge smile on her face. "Put me down…"

Ikuto playfully shook his head, but put the pink haired girl down.

"So how was that for your first time in a teacup?" He teased, but deep down, he really was curious. Amu blushed lightly.

"It was…" She said slowly, as if trying to think of the perfect words to describe it. "It was something that I wish I could've tried out ages ago."

Ikuto's grin softened into a smile.

"Well then," He told her. "I guess you'll have to thank me for this then."

Amu stared at him quizzically.

"Why would I thank you?" She asked. "I mean, it was Yaya's idea to ride this, wasn't it?"

Ikuto shook his head again.

"Yeah," He agreed. "But, I was the one that showed you _how _to ride it."

Amu thought for a moment; Ikuto _did_ have a point. If it wasn't for him, she would have just sat there dumbly on the ride while Yaya or Tadase or maybe some complete stranger had all the fun without her.

"I guess so…" Amu admitted. "So thanks."

Ikuto smirked.

"Anytime, Strawberry," He said cheerfully, ruffling Amu's hair a little bit. "And, not to sound rude or anything, but why did you want to ride with _me_ on this?"

Amu stared at him.

"Why?" She repeated, her cheeks slowly reddening to a redder degree. "I-Isn't that what you wanted?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Yeah," He said. "I _did _want that, but it wasn't what you _want_."

"At first," Amu explained. "I was going to ride with Yaya, but considering I didn't even know _how_ to ride this, I figured that Yaya would make a huge deal out of the whole thing. And Tadase would probably want to ride with Yaya, so I thought that they should be able to ride it together."

Ikuto couldn't help but frown. So the choice had nothing to do with him at all in the end.

"And," Amu continued, ignoring Ikuto's change in facial expression. "I figured I wasn't going to have much fun here anyways, so I thought I might as well try my best to give everyone else a fun day instead of having them all feel like me. But, you obviously proved me wrong. Aruto, that was really a lot of fun."

Ikuto's frown disappeared almost instantly, and was replaced by a huge grin.

"So I'm not really the horrible, disgusting pervert you thought I was in the beginning?" He asked. Amu giggled one last time.

"Well," She answered thoughtfully. "You _are_ still perverted… but I guess there really is a good side to you, too..."

Ikuto couldn't have been happier to hear those final eleven words.

_She finally gets it…_

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Yuki-san," Tadase chided lightly. "It's getting dark, so we should get going soon."

Yaya turned around to look at the blonde haired boy.

"B-but," She pouted. "We still haven't hit the gift shops yet!"

Amu took another sip of her soda and giggled.

"Then how about we just go to the gift shops, huh?" She suggested. "Then Yaya gets to go to a shop, like she wanted; and Tadase can leave, like he wants."

Beside her, Ikuto smirked. Amu had been so happy, so easy to get along with for the whole day, and Ikuto like to think of the reason behind that to be his doing back at the teacup ride.

Yaya smiled, seemingly happy with Amu's idea.

"Okay then!" She exclaimed happily. "Let's go to that one first!"  
She pointed towards one of the stores with many colorful souvenir items in the display windows. But, there was also a huge sign, reading "NO FOOD OR DRINKS ALLOWED".

The group sheepishly glanced down at all the snacks and useless treats they had bought, and opened, throughout their day in the amusement park.

"Maybe we should finish this all before going in…" Ikuto said slowly. Amu shook her head.

"No," She disagreed. "We have so much, it would take us forever to finish it all. Why don't you guys go inside? I'll wait out here with all our food and stuff."

Yaya probably didn't hear the last part; she was already running full speed into the shop. Tadase sighed, shaking his head and hurrying after her before she could cause some sort of destruction to the small store.

Amu glanced at Ikuto, who hadn't moved an inch from her side.  
"Well," She asked. "Aren't you going in?"

Ikuto shook his head.

"I don't want you to be by yourself," He said. "I'm not a big fan of souvenir shopping anyways."  
Amu couldn't help but smile again. Ikuto's good side had really done a good job of showing itself today, and she had no idea why.

The two of them walked to a nearby bench, setting down themselves and all of their things.

"Neh, Aruto…" Amu said softly after a prolonged silence. "I know I said that I would be your girlfriend a little bit back, but I guess I wasn't… really taking you seriously. So, do you think we could start now?"

Ikuto was taken aback for a moment. Just as he was about to open his mouth to answer, he was interrupted by someone else.

"Aruto!" Tadase called out, running towards Amu and Ikuto's spot on the bench. "Yaya… Yay saw something that she thought you might like, and she wants you to go see it…"

Ikuto nodded, glancing at Amu once. She seemed a bit shocked that something that might have been important to her was interrupted by something so pointless, but other than that she looked pretty regular.

"Amu," He said. "Do you think you can watch all of this stuff by yourself?"

Amu nodded slowly. Ikuto grinned at her.

"And about your question," He answered. "Sure."

Amu's face split into a huge smile.

"Thanks… "She whispered, just as Ikuto was walking away with Tadase. With a content smile on her face, Amu leaned back on the bench and closed her eyes.

Suddenly, there was a noise and a vibrating sound coming out of the pocket of Ikuto's jacket, which he had left laying next to Amu.

Curious, Amu reached for the jacket and pulled out the phone. She knew it was wrong, she knew she shouldn't be doing this, but she couldn't help it.

_It couldn't hurt for just one tiny peak, right?_

After checking over her shoulder to see if Ikuto was behind her, she eagerly flipped open the phone. A voice message… from "Tsukiyomi Ikuto."

"Come back," The recording said. "This is Tsukiyomi Ikuto's stage; not mine."

Amu's eyes widened.

* * *

**:O I tired. Got up, went to Chinese school; finished all my Thanksgiving break hw; wrote the chapter; and then now. Yeah...**

**Review please ! :D**


	12. Searching for Truth

**hHope all of you guys are having a wonderful Thanksgiving ! This chapter might totally suck, since I was one of those weirdos that showed up at stores at like… 4AM for the Black Friday sales ~ And now I'm so tired I've had to back-space every other word because I'm forgetting to press the space bar in between words ._. Fail.**

**I have officially fallen in love with**_** Glee**_** songs :) I don't know about the actual show yet, since I have yet to actually watch it. But, my friend introduced me to the songs and I love them :D I don't care if they're all covers, their voices are good too.**

**Bendercat: **… Not really? X)

**Miruku-chii: **You're welcome !

**Nimsaj~chan: **And I love you reviewing.

**Otaku-for-life: **You're welcome ~

**Chika Tskyoki: **Updating :D

**Simply Complicated3: **Hehe; I heard from my friends that it was total bullcrap, so I never really got to watching it myself x) At least you get _something_ for your birthday, though. I'd be lucky if I got something that wasn't a giftcard…

**Dittoeevee8888: **Well, it all depends. He might be like me. I leave my phone in all sorts of places; my backpack, my pocket, my jacket, my purse etc. It all depends on what's most convenient for me atm.

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat: **Psh, it was like… one page xDD I finished it in half an hour.

**LaharlCrazy1120: **Well I'll always think it's bad.

**Vampire-fetish15: **I shall update when you update _Melody of Love_ :D I honestly love that story of yours.

**KittyPrincessKiara: **N. O. I. T. I. S. N. O. T ! :D

**xXYoraXx: **It is, isn't it? X)

**animeluver714: **o_o um… okay?

**Angel of Randomosity: **I love that phrase;; _HOLY CHEESE AND CRACKERS BATMAN !_

**Shokara N' Strawberries: **Updating…

**Ikuto'slover1112: **Yepp

**Cookie0monsta: **… You _did_ read the contents of the text, right?

**xXamuhinamoriXx: **… Shit xDD I messed up again. Ah well; I'll fix it when I finally get around to it…

**xhappily-randomx: **Good job :)

**Full Moon: **Thanks ~

**XNEKOxKITTYxGIRLX: **I know; I know.

**HarunaNiwa073: ***shocked with you*

**Hope Cullen94: **Ahaha; I'm not a big fan of multiple POV's… makes the whole story more confusing :x

**MysteryPearl: **It is, isn't it? 8D

**xXamuhinamoriXx: **Thank you xD

**Patchworkgirl16: **Thanks ~

**Dark Midnight Dream: **Keep reading :D

**Hmm… how about 400 reviews? :D

* * *

**

_Come back; this is Tsukiyomi Ikuto's stage, not mine…_

_Come back; this is Tsukiyomi Ikuto's stage…_

_Come back; this is Tsukiyomi's stage…_

_Come back…_

The words kept ringing endlessly in Amu's mind. What did that mean; "Tsukiyomi Ikuto" saying that the stage wasn't his, but it was Ikuto's stage…

The pink haired girl raised a hand up to support her spinning head. It was so confusing. But she knew one thing for sure: Aruto had been lying to her this whole time. She wasn't sure exactly what it was yet, but she knew he had been hiding something.

Right when she began to start trusting him, too. Maybe… maybe she even _liked_ him a little bit.

Amu took a deep breath, turning back to the phone and marking the message as 'unread' before sliding it back into Ikuto's coat pocket. She would ask him about it, but not necessarily right away. The pink haired girl planned to wait it out for a little bit; maybe he would tell her about it himself.

"Boo," A voice suddenly said from behind her. Amu whipped around and saw Ikuto, standing there with a wide smirk on his face. He seemed to have been extremely satisfied to have surprised her.

Amu forced a smile on her face as she let out a laugh.

"A-Aruto…" She stammered, cheeks flushing. "So did you find anything in the store?"

Ikuto grinned and nodded.

"Yep," He told her, tossing a small bag at her. "And I even got a little something for you, too."

Amu glanced inside the bag. There was a small stuffed animal; more specifically, a stuffed cat with shades of blue fur. Its body was wrapped around a ripe red strawberry.

Despite everything that had happened in the past few minutes, the pink haired girl couldn't help but smile. It really _was_ a cute gift; Amu had to admit to at least that. But, the person who was responsible for handing her the gift just about ruined the whole thing.

Ikuto stood there, gauging her every change in expression with his mind.

"Well…" He said slowly, cautiously. "Do you like it?"

Amu looked up at him and smiled even wider.

"Yeah!" She lied. "It's so adorable! Thanks!"

_That wasn't really a lie… it really is adorable… besides, Ikuto lied about who he was to me. I'm just lying to him about how I feel about a gift… which is really common with most people… right…?_

Ikuto's face brightened considerably.

"Yaya and Tadase already left to go get the car," He said. "They found the next place we're staying tonight, but it's a bit of a drive so they want us to meet them at the entrance of this place."

Amu bit her lip uncertainly, but stood up and followed Ikuto out.

_So we're going to be cramped in a car for God knows how long? Then how am I going to ask Ikuto about that text?_

As the two of them were walking out, a couple of girls stopped and stared at them. Ikuto noticed this, and stopped to stare right back at them.

"Can I help you?" He asked, not sounding at all polite. One of the girls laughed nervously and shook her head.

"Oh," She said. "No. We were just noticing that you looked _a lot _like Tsukiyomi Ikuto, the famous violinist."

Ikuto stiffened, his eyes widening for the tiniest fraction of a second.

"Well," He replied smoothly. "Isn't he on some tour right now, though?"

The other girl stepped forward and nodded vigorously.

"Well, duh!" She said, as if you would have to be an idiot to not know. "But people have been saying that this performance is well… not as great as all the other ones before this one."

"Some people think that he's slipping," The first girl added. "But some people think that that's a fake Ikuto up there!"

Ikuto prayed that no one would notice that his forehead was beginning to sweat.

"Oh really?" He asked calmly. "And what makes them think that?"

"Some people took pictures of the Ikuto performing on the stage and put them next to pictures of the real Ikuto," The girl explained. "And side by side like that, they look _nothing_ alike!"

Oh, how Ikuto wanted to just grab Amu from behind him and just run off at that moment. He let out a nervous chuckle.

"Well… um…" He said. "Maybe he's finally slipping. I mean, he's been really famous for a while now. Maybe all that stress is finally coming down on him."

_Crap… now I know why Amu hates "Ikuto" for being really arrogant. It's no fun talking about myself like that!_

Both girls nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," One of them said. "That's probably it. Well it was nice talking to you!"

The two girls quickly hurried away, looking very excited to be headed towards the amusement. Ikuto looked down, taking Amu's small hand in his own.

"Come on," He said, trying to sound as calm as possible. "We should get going , too."

Amu nodded and walked out with Ikuto's hand wrapped tightly around hers, not saying a single word. Her mind was filled with the endless possibilities.

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

Amu once again sat in the back of the groups' car, only curled up on Ikuto's lap this time. Because of all of the useless items that Yaya had accumulated throughout the duration of their trip so far, there was barely any room for anything. So Ikuto suggested that they save space by making Amu… sit on him.

Not that either of them were complaining. Out loud, at least. It was obvious that Ikuto enjoyed the small warm mass sitting on his lap, and Amu tried to match up her expression with his "I'm not going to say anything but I totally love this!" look. But, she couldn't get that one sentence out of her head.

_Come back; this is Tsukiyomi Ikuto's stage, not mine…_

Amu frowned as she curled up into a tighter ball on top of Ikuto. Her mind wandered back to when she and Ikuto were leaving the amusement park, and their conversation with those girls.

She would be lying if she said that she didn't believe everything they said. If what they said was true, then that meant that the famous Ikuto she met wasn't really Ikuto. And that the one who's lap she was sitting on was the _real_ one.

Though, a small part of her still hoped that that wasn't true. That the person she had just begun to like was actually a big fake.

If she was right, that meant Ikuto was a really good lying. And that meant, for all she know, he might not even give a damn about her. That was what scared Amu the most.

_This whole thing is so confusing…_

She risked a glance up at Ikuto, and was surprised when she saw that he was looking at her as well. One of his hands was supporting Amu's back, his fingers gently playing around with the ends of a couple of the pink locks cascading down her back. His other hand was on her lap, covering both of her hand with one of his own. He looked quite calm, quite satisfied with the way they were sitting.

But his mind was in completely turmoil.

Those two girls they talked two didn't even look like die-hard fans of him; they just looked like one of those people who would listen to the music, but not exactly be jumping over or fantasizing about any celebrities. If someone like them could have easily figured out about the performing Ikuto being a fake, then it was obvious that _anyone_ could.

That wasn't good.

If word got out about it, Ikuto would never hear the end of it. People would be following him around endlessly to make sure he couldn't pull something like this off again.

But most of all, hoped that Amu wouldn't know. Or at least get mad about it. She already hated the famous Ikuto more than enough; how would she react if she had fallen in love with the same person she hated.

Amu would probably hate him as well. And Ikuto didn't want that.

He glanced back down at Amu, smiling slightly as he saw her fast asleep in his arms. She looked so cute that away, not at all like the furious person that Ikuto imagined she would be once she found out. He switched his focus to the window, and he felt his own eyelids beginning to droop.

"Hey Tadase," Ikuto called out sleepily, but not loud enough to wake up the sleeping Amu. "How much longer?"

"Well…" Tadase replied, sounding a bit tired himself. "A while, I guess…"

Ikuto shrugged. Falling asleep for a bit wouldn't hurt anybody, would it?

**~ i S n o w X 3 ~**

"Hey, Aruto!"

Ikuto woke up with a start, blinking as his world suddenly came into focus again. Amu was still fast asleep on his lap, and the car door next to him was open. Yaya and Tadase were peering in over them, smiles on both of their faces.

"We ran out of gas," Yaya explained. "So we're gonna stop here really quickly before continuing on."

"And we've been trying to get Hinamori-san up for a while," Tadase added. "But she keeps pushing us away and saying something about how she 'didn't want to hear anymore lies from us'. Any ideas on that?"

Ikuto tried not to think about what that could be.

"Um… I don't know," He quickly lied. "Look, how about you guys go and get everything you need first? I'll stay here and wake up Amu. We'll come in after you once she wakes up.

Yaya needed no more encouragement from the blue haired man.

"Then come on, Tadase!" She said, tugging on the blonde's arm. "They sell sweets in that store over there!"

Tadase chuckled lightly, shaking his head as he followed the younger girl away from the car. As soon as they were gone, Ikuto stared at Amu.

_She can't know… can she? But how?_

He prodded the pink haired girl gently.

"Amu…" He whispered gently. "Amu, get up."

Amu mumbled something incoherent in her sleep before slowly sitting up, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"What?" She asked in utter confusion as she looked around. "Where'd everybody else go?"

Ikuto smirked.

"They all went to go get some more gas… and Yaya's getting some more treats," He said. Amu's eyes widened, and she was instantly wide awake.

"So they're all gone?" She asked. Ikuto nodded.

"I guess…." He answered slowly, wondering where this conversation. Amu sat up on Ikuto's lap, staring him straight in the eye. It took everything inside of Ikuto to not flinch away from her gaze. Her honeycomb eyes were filled with a mix of emotions; anger, frustration, sadness, betrayal, even a hint of challenging.

"So," She said, her eyes narrowing as she spoke. "Tsukiyomi Ikuto, huh? How could I have _not_ figured that out?"

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***drops dead from lack of sleep* :(**

**Review please !**

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	13. Letting You Go

**I have the like like BESTEST NEWS EVER ! :D Okay , so , over the break I went to my mom's friends house ; so I went to hang with their son . So we basically wasted two hours playing **_**Fairytale Fights**_** ; you know , that retarded rated M XBox game where you're this little kid dressed in red and get points by making blood gush out of poor little bunny rabbits ? Yeah , we played that . And then , he …**

_**ASKED . ME . OUT !!!!!**_

**So I am officially **_**taken**_** again ; and I've already had some people tell me that I've become a happier person after we got together ^^ Even though I haven't noticed . At all . Horrible me .**

**But still , I have to admit , it feels good to not be single again . I mean , not that I breakup&get together with people all the time , but I really like him this time . He's not the hottest guy in the world , he's not the ugliest , and I love him anyways :) Since part of love is being able to see past the physical flaws and to the person that's inside .**

**Though I'm going to admit it's going to be hard ; since he lives 2+ hours away . And that's driving . So we're relying on AIM&this mmo he got me addicted to after like , a year of me not playing it 8D**

**OKAY . Enough about me :D ONTO THE STORY AND REPLIES AND W / E.**

**Oh , and happy birthday , Ikuto-kun ! I'm a bit late, though ._. Ah well .**

**Character Clover : **I doubt this counts as really really soon xD

**LaharlCrazy1120 : **…. Which one ? o_O

**ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat : **I don't like sleep :\ I mean , you've only got a limited amount of time to have fun on Earth , and I'm not exactly one that wants to waste over half of it unconscious in some bed .

**Conciousness : **Hey , it's my idea . My design . My beautiful pic that my not-so-wonderful ex put onto a t-shirt me . I can use it as many times as I want to , thank you very much ;D

**Tsuki's Angel : **Well considering that day I only slept about 2hours , and was able to function pretty well for the remainder of the day , I'm proud of myself x)

**Amuto luver : **Updating !

**Otaku-for-life : **Thanks :D

**Himeka Tsukiyomi : **Well thanks for updating your stories too :) I look forward to reading more of them .

**xXDiamondMtzXx : **Thank yous .

**Neji0932 : **I know right ? :D

**Dark Midnight Dream : ***thinks perverted thoughts* teehee .

**Reggierock : **I love writing thiss .

**Yoru-chan-Amuto-freak : **Too late :D

**Angel of Randomosity : **Actually it does ._.

**Cookie0monsta : **Oh . Stupid me then Dx

**Animeluver714 : **Yes she did .

**Iluvebleach10: **Tadase's not gay :\ He's just … superly duperly girly .

**Amuto20174 : **Everyone's nervous at some point in their life . Just some people are better at hiding it than others .

**Snowiisan : ***points at profile* "My self confidence is about the size of your fingertip." Get the idea ?

**Dittoeevee8888 : **Why put in fluff when one of the characters is about to blow up ? o_O

**KremZen : **AHAHA . I would totally do that , except it really makes no sense .

**xxYiNGYiNGxx : **Hello to you , too :D

**Shokara N' Strawberries : **I love writing this story too :D

**Soccerluver04 : **:o LUCKY . I didn't get to go anywhere .

**Snowrosex3 : **:o ! I thought you would've taken me off of your alerts a _longgg_ time ago ! Ah well , the only reason I'm writing any slower is because gaming is my only way of communicating with my bf for the time being … at least until I'm old enough to get a car ._. ; and school . And my piano exam D: Which I failed .

**HarunaNiwa073 : **Updating :D

**Aquris : **… *copies and pastes from a reply I wrote to someone else earlier* "I don't like sleep :\ I mean , you've only got a limited amount of time to have fun on Earth , and I'm not exactly one that wants to waste over half of it unconscious in some bed ."

**MysteryPearl : **D: I don't like New Moon . I mean , Twilight wasn't that bad of a series ; but the fangirling and fantasies of fucking Edward really piss me off . It got too annoying for me ; so after having to sit through screaming girls while watching the first movie ; I never went to watch New Moon .

**Miruku-chii : **…. So what kind of cliffy do you want then ? ._."

**Habbylala : **Aww … thanks :D

**AniMe FreAkz XD : **Thanks yous x)

**Vampire-fetish15 : **Well I'm dead ._. I was never one to recover quickly after falling …

**.'.Sympho.'. : ***copies and pastes _again* _"I don't like sleep :\ I mean , you've only got a limited amount of time to have fun on Earth , and I'm not exactly one that wants to waste over half of it unconscious in some bed ."

**StrawberryMoonlight : **:DD

**Animefan1929 : **Oh yes he is :)

**Shakugan_charaXD : **Glee songs are the best :D Even though I _still_ haven't gotten around to watching the actual show . Too busy :\

** : **Updating :D

**Amuto fan : **Then read :o

**Xhappily-randomx : **Oh yes he is :P

**Thanks for the 400+ reviews ~ I appreciate them all soo much !**

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Ikuto stared at the pink haired girl for a moment, eyes wide with disbelief.

_And after all I worked for to make sure this never happened … Damn._

He laughed.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto?" He repeated, trying to sound like he found the whole thing truly funny. "What's this got to do with him?"

Amu glared at him.

"You know," She said coldly. Ikuto continued to feign confusion.

"I'm sorry," He said. "But what?"

"You!" Amu suddenly exploded, tears beginning to fall from her large golden eyes. "You're Tsukiyomi Ikuto! Your name isn't Hoshina Aruto, or whatever it was that you thought you could say it was!"

Ikuto frowned, but didn't say anything. Amu's glare hardened.

"OH COME ON!" She continued disbelievingly. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Her hands suddenly plunged into his jacket pockets, blindly fumbling for the cell phone that held her answer. She angrily yanked it out, flipping it open and frantically searching for the text message. Sure enough, it was still sitting in the inbox, still unread.

Amu opened it, shoving the phone into Ikuto's face.

"Look at that," She whispered. "And tell me that I'm lying."

Ikuto stared at the phone's LED screen in pure horror. Amu was right; he really _couldn't_ accuse Amu of lying anymore.

Because she was right. Ikuto had lost. And he had no way of getting out of this one.

_Yoru … you are dead. I hope you realize that._

Ikuto stopped his own thoughts short. It wasn't right, blaming this whole thing on his identical little friend. It wasn't Yoru's fault that he didn't want that lifestyle anymore, it wasn't his fault that Ikuto just happened to leave his phone alone with Amu.

No matter how he looked at it, Tsukiyomi Ikuto was still at fault.

"But," Amu's quivering voice pulled Ikuto back into reality. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Ikuto hesitated. Of course, he knew the answer to that; but that wasn't the point. The point was that his answer wasn't going to do much to how Amu was feeling at the moment.

But hurting her with the truth would always be a better choice than hurting her with a lie.

The blue haired man took a deep breath.

"I didn't tell anyone," He said quietly. Amu flinched, her eyes filling with more hurt than ever.

"But…" She whispered, averting her gaze to the carpet flooring of the vehicle. "Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have told anyone else, I would've kept it a secret for you…"

Amu sighed softly to herself, and then it hit her.

_Why _would_ he tell me? I mean, I was the one who kept saying that I hated Tsukiyomi Ikuto. He had no reason to tell me._

Ikuto stared at her, a pleading look on his face.

"Amu…" He said, quickly trying to work some sort of apology in his mind. He had heard somewhere that when in a fight, always let the girl win. Or else there would be no ending to the fight.

And he was more than ready to let Amu win this one.

A small, sad smile suddenly sprouted on Amu's face. She shook her head, pushing Ikuto away from her as she stood up.

_There's no point. He doesn't belong with us. He's famous. He deserves better than this. Besides, I guess it really _is _my fault. For hating him without even knowing it was him that I hated… God, so confusing._

"Ikuto," She said, frowning slightly. Calling him that felt so… awkward to her tongue. "Ikuto. Just… just stop."

Ikuto's eyes widened.

_What do you mean 'stop'? For the love of God, I was just going to _apologize_ to you!_

Amu, held his gaze, a new feeling springing in her eyes. It was like… well it was something that wasn't exactly negative.

"I mean stop." She said firmly. "You… you should do what that guy said. You should go back."

Ikuto blinked.

"G-Go back?" He repeated uncertainly. "Why?"

Amu took a deep breath.

"Well," She told him. "Everyone has a place where they belong and truly feel like themselves. For me, that's with my friends and family. For you, it's on that stage in front of a bunch of screaming girls. Besides, you remember those two girls back at the amusement park? Yeah, they figured out what you were doing. It could be bad if more people figured it out."

Ikuto tried his best to think of an argument.

"But-"

"No buts," Amu said, smiling. "You belong there. So you go back there."

Ikuto felt that Amu was just using this as a polite way to say 'get the fuck out of my life'. When he made no sound, Amu reached into one of the bags beside them, fishing out the stuffed animal Ikuto had bought her only earlier that day.

"You know what?" Amu asked, handing him the small toy. "You keep this."

Ikuto stared disbelievingly at the bundle of fur and stuffing in his hands, and then back at the pink haired teen that gave it to him.

"But I got it for you," He argued. Amu shook her head.

"Keep it," She insisted, her expression softening slightly. "Think of it as a… souvenir of everything that happened here!"

Ikuto frowned. Now he _really _that Amu was just trying to 'politely' get rid of him. Him and his little present to her.

To be honest, he knew this day would come eventually. He just didn't realize that Amu would react this way. Rather than getting angry or sad or something else and then yelling at him to leave, she said it all calmly, even with a smile on her face.

And Ikuto would've preferred the first option much more. Made it much easier for him to leave. The second one just made things worse for him.

He gave Amu one last painstaking glance.

"Amu," He said, his voice low. Amu shook her head.

"Just…" Her voice trailed off as the tears began to return. "Go. Get out of here."

Ikuto still really didn't want to go. But Amu seemed dead set on making that happen, so he might as well make it easier for both of them.

He reached his arms out, gently lifting Amu's head, and giving her a kiss before stepping out of the car and walking away. He didn't say a word.

No goodbye. No "I'll miss you".

No "I love you".

Amu watched his figure keep walking until the darkness swallowed him up. Then she leaned back into the seat, sobbing.

_Why aren't I mad at him? Hinamori Amu, wake up! You're supposed to be mad at him!_

But, there was one problem with that. She _wasn't_ mad at him. She was mad at herself. For being stupid, for hating Ikuto's real personality, for falling in love with is fake one.

For forgetting to tell him how much she loved him before he was really gone.

* * *

**DONE . FINALLY ! This chapter took me much longer than it should have . And a lot more horrible too :D Not really in the mood to write anything sad . Still living in that little "OHMYGOD I LOVE HIM" phase of mine :D**

**I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as great as you thought it would be :\ I was honestly rushing . I've got a piano exam in four days , and I'm no where prepared . I've got history project , Spanish exam (both oral ****_and_ written... I'm screwed) , and so much more shit you don't want to hear about .**

**Ah well , if you need me , I'll be doing my history project . God , our senator is going to love me after he sees this letter I'm going to have to eventually send him ._. I'm going to write about abortion just to make things a lot more awkward for his … guyness . Yeah :) I'm so smart .**

**Don't forget to review ! :D**

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	14. Candy Hearts

**I'M 14 TODAY ! :D ISN'T THAT COOL ?!**

… **I did absolutely nothing useful this whole time I haven't been updating . But … I learned that making shadow puppets on the wall is pretty fun when you're bored(: TRY IT SOMETIME .**

**Only people on FB would know how much **_**pain & suffering & irritation**_** this chapter caused me._.**

**Not going to reply to any of the reviews; not in the mood for it . Plus, they all basically say the same thing anyways .**

**Also, a **_**huge**_** thanks to writeoneleaf . tumblr . com ! If it wasn't for their amazing inspirations, then I would still be with a blank word document right now ~**

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**My Star: Chapter 14  
(Candy Hearts.)**

**(033010 .)**

**Dedicated to;**

**Kaggie101 for turning My Star into a MS Series,**

**Animefan1929, Yuuki-Neko-San, & Amakarai for being the best (& first) betas I've ever had.**

**& You, if you have stuck with Amu and Ikuto**

**until**

**the**

**very**

**end .**

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_**Cinderella walked on broken glass. Sleeping Beauty let a whole lifetime pass. Belle fell in love with a hideous beast. Jasmine married a common thief. Ariel walked on land for love and life. Snow White barely escaped a knife. It was all about blood, sweat, and tears, because love means facing your biggest fears.**_

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Amu sighed, curling into her seat in the back of the car. Yaya and Tadase came back a while ago; they must have noticed that something happened, but they didn't really question Amu about it. But she guessed that they were told everything about how he was Ikuto, rather than Aruto, since they just gave her an understanding look before starting up the car again.

She brushed some of the pink hair out of her face before reaching into one of the bags laying close to her and pulling out a music player and a pair of headphones. She wasn't sure who's they were; she and Yaya each brought their own, and she had just pulled one out at random. But, it didn't really matter.

Without looking at it at all, Amu pressed the "play" button, surprised when she heard the sound of a violin playing instead of the usual songs that she and Yaya listened to.

Amu finally glanced at the music player. Her eyes widened; it wasn't hers _nor_ was it Yaya's.

It was Ikuto's.

Amu quickly sat up, frantically trying to find the bag that she had taken the device out of. She finally found it, and held it up so that she could get a better look at it. Her eyes widened.

She unbuckled her seat belt; completely ignoring the fact that the car was moving and Yaya and Tadase's protests; and began digging around through all the bags piled in the back of the car.

Ikuto had left everything of his here, taking only his violin case, with the violin in it of course, with him. Amu quickly found all of Ikuto's stuff and stacked into a rather large pile beside her.

"Yaya," She asked her friend. "Did Ikuto tell you where he was going to go next?"

Yaya frowned as she tried to remember. "I think … he said this town where one of his friends were or something. It was one of those really small towns, can't really remember the name right now …"

Amu frowned, but was silent.

_One of his friends … probably that guy that he had pretend to be him or something._

"Yaya," She finally spoke again. "Do you think you can try to remember the name of that town? We have to go there."

Yaya stared at her friend disbelievingly before a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Why? Didn't you two get into a fight or something? … Unless … are you telling me you still miss him?"

Amu felt her cheeks heat up. "N-no," she stuttered. "It's just that … that he left all of his stuff with us! Yeah! We have to go and give it all back to him, don't we?"

Yaya shrugged, turning to Tadase, who mouthed, "_that's probably not the case_".

Amu turned away with a huff, pretending she never saw that.

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Yoru walked out of the building, his tired-looking eyes wandering around the blue sky above him. He had just finished rehearsing yet again for the concert that was in a few days. When he had first decided to help Ikuto out, he didn't realize it would be this much work on his part. He didn't realize that it would mean practicing some violin, recording some violin, and then practicing some more yet again. It was so repetitive, so much monotonous work. It got quite boring after a while.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming towards him. His eyes travelled away from the sky, instead looking around him, looking for the person who was walking. And then he saw him.

Standing a few feet away, was none other than Tsukiyomi Ikuto. Yoru's face split into a smile.

"Oi!" He called out. Ikuto turned, smirking when he saw his identical. The two of them walked towards each other. Yoru grinned.

"So," he said. "You're here to save me from your job?"

Ikuto's smirk widened as he nodded. "I'm back. And I'm going to do what you said, and just be who I really am. So you can go whenever you feel like it."

Yoru shook his head in disagreement.

"I'm going to stay," He declared. "At least for the next concert anyways. We basically lied to every single one of your fans. Don't you think we should tell them or something? I mean, some of them are already starting to figure it out. Wouldn't it be better if we told them the truth whether them finding out some other way?"

Ikuto frowned for a moment.

"Yeah …" He said thoughtfully. "I guess … that would be better. It's always better to lie and then tell the truth than lie and wait for someone else to uncover your lies."

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

"Well, Hinamori-san," Tadase said, slowing the car down. "I think we're here."

Amu rolled down her window and stared outside disbelievingly. This place could hardly be called a town; there were barely any buildings, and each house was about half the size of her own.

"_This_ is the town?" She asked. "I always thought that famous people performed in big, fancy towns … and this is definitely not a big town."

"Mmm … maybe he was planning to do some charity thing?" Yaya suggested. "Like, maybe his company knew that this town needed some help or something, so he was going to raise money …? Maybe …"

Amu shrugged. "The reason doesn't matter," She decided. "We need to find Ikuto. Tadase, when he told you the … um … _truth_, did he happen to mention when this concert's going to be?"

Tadase thought for a minute or two. "I think," He recalled. "That it was going to be tomorrow night."

"Okay," Amu said. "So we have some time to find somewhere to stay and figure out exactly how we're going to get to him."

Yaya was silent as she looked around at their surroundings. She suddenly pointed at one of the buildings. It was somewhat larger than the structures around it, probably with three or four floors. There were bright lights coming off of a sign hung in the front, reading _Motel_.

"How about that?" She suggested. "Maybe we could get all of our stuff in there so that we won't have to carry it around in the car for the rest of our time here … ?"

She glanced at Tadase, who nodded and drove in the direction of the hotel.

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Ikuto sat on one of the crates off to the side of the stage, watching as everyone else around him prepare everything for the upcoming concert. It was outdoors, since this town was too small to have any concert halls. Ikuto was still confused to why they were having one in a place like this anyways …

Yoru suddenly walked by, carrying a box full of stuff. He stopped when he saw Ikuto sitting there, looking pretty distracted. He set the box down, sitting next to his friend.

"So now what's bothering you?" He asked, sounding not at all surprised. Ikuto had been so moody since he came back; there was barely a moment where he wasn't.

And once again, Ikuto barely heard the question. Too busy thinking again.

Yoru's idea … the one about how Ikuto should tell all of his fans that were going to be at the concert about his big "secret", as Yoru and his manager liked to call it.

But, something about the whole thing just didn't seem … _right_ to him. Of course, he understood what Yoru wanted him to do. It was what everyone would expect him to do, and probably the only thing that could set him back on the path to stardom as well. Yet he couldn't help but sense that nagging feeling in the back of his mind. Almost as if doing so would make someone else he cared about really unhappy …

And then it hit him. The idea still fresh in his mind, he turned back to Yoru.

"Hey," He asked. "You still want to tell everybody about what … happened, right?"

Yoru nodded slowly, not sure where this was going.

"Well," Ikuto continued. "We can still do that. But, can we do it my way?"

He quickly explained to his friend what "his way" meant exactly. After he was done explaining everything through, Yoru stared at him. His expression was one of shock, one of disbelief.

"Are you serious?" He asked. "You're willing to throw it all away? I mean, I'm not saying that you'll have to, but you might. You sure?"

Ikuto nodded, not planning on saying anything out loud. He knew what he needed to do, he knew what he wanted to do, and he was going to get both of those done in one night.

And he wasn't going to let anything get in his way.

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Amu tossed and turned on the hotel bed, nowhere close to falling asleep yet, although the clock on the table beside her read 1:35 am.

She frowned as she rolled around some more on the bed. There was something wrong. It might just be that bed was unusually lumpy, maybe it was just the fact that her mind wouldn't settle down. She would never find out.

Amu sat up in the bed, kicking off the sheets, careful to not wake up her two friends. Brushing some pink hair out of her eyes, she tiptoed across the hotel room, holding her arms out in front of her to find her way to where they had put Ikuto's stuff for the night.

As silently as she could, Amu unzipped one of the bags, praying that it was the right one. She reached her hand in, and smiled when she felt some soft fabric. She reached around some more, until she found a t-shirt.

"Well," Amu said to herself, pulling out Ikuto's shirt and holding it in front of her. "It might just be that there's something wrong with my clothes. Maybe if I put this on it might make everything better."

If only it was that easy.

It was still worth a try, though. Amu looked on both sides of her to check if anybody was awake around her. Then she quickly shrugged off her shirt, sliding Ikuto's on instead.

She already felt better; just the scent of Ikuto on the shirt gave her a more comforting feel. Smiling to herself, she skipped back to the bed.

Amu glanced out the window as she moved. She stopped for a moment, to just stare out and enjoy the clear night sky. There were so many stars, each one giving off its own unique shine, its own bright glow.

But … just like most things in this world, no matter how much they shine, there is rarely anyone that stops to see their light.

Amu stared at the sky some more, she noticed that there was one star, among all of the other shining ones, that stood out. It wasn't that it was any brighter or anything, it just seemed that Amu noticed it more than the other ones.

_Hmm … maybe it's one of those stars that you wish on … ?_

Amu shrugged; it was worth a try. Even though she had always been told that wishing on stars was extremely childish and would get you nowhere, she couldn't help but believe in it sometimes.

"I wish … " She whispered. "I wish that … we can find Ikuto tomorrow. And that I can talk to him and have a chance to apologize."

She took a deep breath.

"And I wish that he'll forgive me."

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Ikuto climbed onto the roof of the building. He knew he was supposed to be asleep hours ago, yet there was something stopping him from doing so. It might have just been nerves from finally having to perform again. But, that didn't seem like the right explanation. Almost like something was missing.

He settled himself on top of the shingles, feeling a sense of relaxation as he watched the stars in the sky. It was something he had done ever since he was a young kid; a habit that he had inherited from his dad.

Ikuto couldn't help but notice, however, that one of the stars was twinkling just a bit brighter than the other ones in the sky tonight. He smiled. Wishing on stars was something that he had never really believed in doing before, but for some reason tonight seemed different.

One more different change to what he usually did couldn't hurt, right?

"I wish," He said to nobody in particular. "That somehow this concert is a huge success, and none of those fans hate me or Yoru for what we did. I wish … that somehow I can see Amu again and that I can apologize to lying to her for all that time. And-"

"Hey, Ikuto," He was suddenly interrupted. Ikuto looked behind him, and saw Yoru also climbing up onto the roof. He must have just gotten up; his eyes still looked a bit tired.

"Ikuto," Yoru repeated. "What are you doing up here? I thought you were supposed to be asleep …"

Ikuto shrugged. "I don't know. Couldn't sleep or something. I would always come up and sit on a roof when that happened."

Yoru stared at him for a moment, not believing what he said. He climbed up and sat a little bit away from Ikuto.

"That's not the problem," He said. "There's something else bugging you, isn't there?"

Ikuto hesitated for a moment, but just shrugged and shook his head. It wasn't that he liked lying to people, but his problems with Amu weren't something that he would've liked to talk about. He'd rather keep it a secret.

Yoru watched him for a moment longer, but shook his head. "If you say so," He muttered before standing up and leaving.

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Amu wandered through the busy crowd around the stage , hopelessly lost and confused. Tadase and Yaya had left to go buy some snacks to keep Yaya quiet during the concert, but she hadn't seen them in almost half an hour so she gave up on trying to look for them. Now she was stuck alone, in the blur of people.

_Where did all these people come from anyways? I thought this was supposed to be a pretty small town …_

She shook her head; she could think about this later. Right now, she needed to focus on finding Ikuto and not getting trampled to death by all of the fans.

Amu walked around some more, not really sure about where she was going. She managed to push herself out of the thick of the crowd, and off to the side where most of the stage crew was. She bit her lip uncertainly as she felt all the eyes of the workers fall upon her. One of them stepped forward.

"Hey," he said. "What are you doing here? This is for workers _only_."

Amu took a step back. "I-I'm sorry," She stuttered nervously. "It's just that I was l-looking for somebody … and"

"She was looking for me," A familiar voice interrupted her. Amu looked up and saw Ikuto, standing only a few yards away from her. Her eyes widened.

_He's here. He's really here._

Ikuto walked towards her, casually slipping an arm around Amu's shoulders and leading her away from the surprised workers.

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

"So … Ikuto," Amu began softly. "Where are we going?"

Ikuto was leading her quite far away from all the commotion of the concert. He suddenly stopped walking and turned around to look at Amu. "Relax," he assured her. "We'll be back in time for everything. And Yaya saw another new display of snacks, so she's not going to notice that you're gone for a long time."

Amu shrugged, his reasoning seemed logical, so she continued following him until the two of them reached a small house.

"I've been staying until we're done with the concert," Ikuto explained. Amu nodded as she stared at the building. It was pretty small, but it also had that warm and cozy feel to it.

"So … " She trailed off, already feeling as if their conversation had hit an awkward spot. She walked towards the house, taking a seat on one of the steps in front of the door. Ikuto didn't sit down next to her; he just stood in front of her, staring into her face. He sighed.

"I'm sorry," He suddenly said. "I'm sorry for lying to you for all that time, and for not telling you sooner, or for not trusting you to understand any of it. I'm sorry for leaving without really explaining anything to you, and I'll try my best to make it all up to you."

Amu reached for a stick laying on the ground, using it to poke the ground. She avoided Ikuto's gaze, trying her best to continue to do so at all costs.

"You shouldn't be apologizing," She told him, keeping her eyes glued to the ground. "I guess that all that pretending to hate you when we first met and … um … accidentally "kissed" made it seem like I was somebody that wouldn't keep a secret. Maybe if I actually decided to try to be myself around you, then … then I might have found out earlier, and none of this would've happened."

Ikuto shook his head. "It would've happened anyways," He disagreed. "It would've just happened earlier than it did. So it's my fault."

Amu suddenly looked up, her eyes wide. "No, it wasn't your fault! It was mine."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow. "No way."

Amu narrowed her eyes. "My fault."

"No, mine."

"Mine."

"Nope. My fault. Not yours."

Amu suddenly jumped up. "It was my fault!" She exclaimed. "Not yours. So no matter what you say, I'm not going to accept that '_apology_' of yours because you have nothing to apologize for."

Ikuto frowned at her. "Fine then," He retorted. "The same goes for me too."

The two of them stood there, glaring at each other for a few minutes. Amu finally blinked and looked away.

"Well," She stated. "This is awkward."

Ikuto shifted his gaze to the ground in between them, silent. Amu didn't notice; she was too busy focusing her attention onto a tree a few feet away.

Suddenly, she felt two hands grab her shoulders. She let out a small gasp of surprise when she felt a mouth cover her own, kissing her gently, yet roughly, all at the same time.

What probably surprised Amu the most was that she had begun to kiss back.

When the two of them finally had the decency to pull away, Ikuto smiled at her. Amu smiled back, leaning against Ikuto's strong figure. Ikuto wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry," He said. Amu shifted slightly.

"Nope," she said, snuggling closer to him. "My fault, not yours."

"Hey, Ikuto!" Another voice suddenly called out. Both Amu and Ikuto looked up, and saw Yoru hurrying towards them. "Ikuto, so you were _here_ this whole- HEY, who's this?"

Ikuto fought back another smile. "The reason I wanted things done my way," was all he said. Amu, who had just been smiling politely at Yoru up until now, frowned and looked up at Ikuto, confused.

"What's going your way?" She asked, but Ikuto just shook his head.

"You'll find out later," He promised. Amu shrugged.

"Yeah," Yoru interrupted them. "Yeah, that's really cute and all, but the concert is in 10 minutes. You better get back."

Ikuto's eyes widened. "Crap … " He muttered, releasing Amu. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a backstage pass. "When the concert's done, just use this to get into the back and come back, okay?"

Amu smiled, taking the pass and slipping it into one of the pockets in her jacket. "I should be heading back, too," She said. "Yaya gets distracted by treats, but nothing's kept her busy this long."

She slipped her hand back into Ikuto's, and the two of them began to walk back to where the concert was being held. Yoru watched them for a few moments before deciding to take a different route back; the two of them looked like they needed some private time together.

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Amu ran back and found Tadase and Yaya, breathless as she slipped into a seat beside theirs. Her friends eyed her curiously.

"Um … Hinamori-san," Tadase asked. "What happened to you?"

Amu tried her best not to smile. "Everything happened," She told him. "And nothing could get any better."

Tadase didn't seem to want to take that as an answer, but Yaya disrupted his thinking by shoving a bag of heart-shaped candies into Amu's face.

"Here!" She said excitedly. "Try some of these! They're really delicious!"

Amu took one, but only to keep her friend quiet for the rest of the performance. She turned her attention back to the stage in front of them and all the rest of the fans, and saw Ikuto walk up and face them all. His expression was completely cool and calm, showing no sign of what was going to happen next.

"I know," He began, still sounding like he knew exactly what he was doing. "That you guys all came here, expecting a concert like the ones I've normally had in the past. You all come here, you listen to a violin, you leave. And I swear you'll get to do that again this time. But first, I want to say something. Well … it's more like I have to _apologize _for something."

As if right on cue, Yoru hopped up onto the stage and walked to stand beside Ikuto. A whole round of gasps came from the crowd; the girl sitting next to Amu even jumped and stood up for a moment.

"This is the first concert," Ikuto continued. "Throughout this entire tour, where I've been the one you've seen on stage. For all the other performances, it was this guy right here." He motioned to Yoru. "And to be honest, he could actually become something pretty great. He's really talented, he knows what he's doing, he has a really good chance at life."

Amu continued watching Ikuto's every move. Something didn't seem right from the way he was moving around and talking … like Ikuto wasn't really thinking about what he was saying; like his mind had wandered off, yet his mouth was still moving.

"And," Ikuto said. "The reason he's probably going to be more successful than I am is because … because his career as a violinist is just getting started. And mine is coming to its end."

Amu flinched when she heard the last six words. She wasn't the only one; many loud gasps were heard from everybody around her. A few girls even pulled out cameras and phones to record the shocking moment forever. Yaya had even stopped chewing on her candy for a moment to listen.

Ikuto took another deep breath.

"What I mean is," He told the crowd of fans. "Is that … I guess you could say this is the last performance that you'll ever see me at. I think I'm done after this. To be a famous musician … you have to _want_ to be a star and shine. You have to want to work at your hardest and try your best. You have to want to make your way up to the top, even if it means stepping on a few people along the way. And that … that's something I don't think I can do anymore. I want to do more of what I want, rather than spending the rest of my life impressing every single music listener out there in this world."

"Besides," He said, finding Amu in the crowd and sending her a small smile. "There's someone I met while I was gone and had Yoru taking my place this whole time. She and I didn't really get along at first, but then I realized … that she's actually really amazing. And I realized that I really want to be with her because she's _that_ important to me."

Amu felt her eyes widened. Ikuto noticed this, and fought back a smirk.

"Anyways," He announced. "If I'm really going to be gone after this, then I want to go with something that all of you guys will remember forever." He turned to Yoru. "Let's make this a concert they'll never forget."

**.: i S n o w X 3 :.**

Amu ran past all of the crew standing around behind the stage, right into Ikuto's arms.

"Stupid … jerk … idiot …" She mumbled. "You just gave up everything you ever wanted. Everything you could've asked for … in five stupid minutes."

Ikuto grinned. "Nope," He corrected. "Not _everything_. You don't see me telling you to get lost yet, do you?"

Amu giggled and gave him another hug. She knew that she shouldn't be feeling like this; she should feel bad that he did all of that. But … secretly she was happy. Very happy that it was all done for her sake.

"Anyways," She asked. "What _are_ you going to do now?"

Ikuto thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know," He said. "Probably find a different job … one that's really close to where you live, if you want."

Amu smiled; of course she wanted it.

"Hey, Amu! Ikuto!" The tow of them looked up and saw Yaya running towards them, Tadase following closely behind.

"You two!" Yaya demanded, holding out the bag of heart-shaped candies in front of her. "Enough of all that lovey-dovey stuff! Ikuto's staying with us forever so we have to celebrate!"

Amu glanced at Ikuto, who merely shrugged. Yaya would always be Yaya, no matter what everybody else around her was. Ikuto reached into the bag of candies, frowning as he pulled out one that was broken. He was only holding one half; the other half was still somewhere in the bag.

"It's …broken … " He said. Yaya glared at him.

"It's candy!" She exclaimed. "It can't always be perfect!"

Amu smiled as she reached into the bag. Her piece was broken too. Ikuto raised an eyebrow, taking her piece and putting it next to his piece.

They fit perfectly together; forming one perfect heart.

* * *

**/end story .**

**DONE . HAHA .**

_**So … what happens next ?**_

**I don't know .**

**I don't think I'm going to be doing too much writing . I haven't written anything for over a month now, & so much has changed in my life in that one little month . I have other hobbies, new friends, new priorities … a new everything . I almost feel like today's a fresh start for me or something .**

**So I'm not going to write another series . Heck, I'll be truthful . It might be a while before I write **_**anything**_**, though I hope that I could continue with the oneshots & the songfics . But we'll just have to see .**

**Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to close Microsoft Word now . Today's my birthday; so I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can. I'm going to go outside, dance on the lawn, smell the roses & not worry about a single thing in this world .**

**Well ... I will later . The weather's not exactly the prettiest right now .**

**& Maybe you should too . It's good for your health(:**

_**Love,  
Joyce .**_


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